In a fresh letter to AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal, the Election Commission of India on Thursday asked the former Delhi chief minister not to mix issues of increased ammonia in the Yamuna River with his serious allegations of Yamuna poisoning with mass genocide, equating with the act of war between two nations.
Responding to Kejriwal’s reply sent last night, the Commission granted him another opportunity to explain why action should not be taken for his serious allegations of promoting disharmony, the enmity between different groups, overall public disorder and unrest.
Advertisement
The poll body asked the AAP Chief that without mixing the issue of poisoning with increased ammonia in Yamuna, he should provide factual evidence with specific and pointed responses to type, quantity, nature, manner of poisoning of Yamuna and details of engineers, location, and methodology of detecting the poison by Delhi Jal Board engineers by Friday 11 am, failing which the Commission will take appropriate decision in the matter.
The ECI also stressed that the availability of sufficient and clean water is a governance issue and that all governments concerned at all times should engage in securing this for all the people and it found no reason for anyone to dispute this noble position.
It said that it will leave it to the competence and discretion of governments and agencies, abstaining from arbitration on long-standing water-sharing and pollution issues during the brief election period, particularly where agreements and legal directives from the Supreme Court and National Green Tribunal already exist.
Kejriwal Wednesday submitted his reply to the Election Commission of India with regard to the complaints over his alleged statement regarding the Yamuna water contamination issue and mentioned that what he said was to highlight severe toxicity in the river water received from Haryana.
In a detailed response to the ECI, Kejriwal claimed several harmful impacts of the water contamination in the river including various health risks.
He mentioned that as per the mentioned facts in the communication to the poll panel, no violation of any law or any code was committed by him.
The AAP chief also mentioned, “I beseech and most humbly request Election Commission to intervene on the major issue of availability of safe water and pass appropriate directions to the State of Haryana so that safe quantity of water is made available to the citizens of Delhi.”
The BJP and Congress have lodged complaints with the ECI against Kejriwal for making serious false allegations on Monday.
