‘People in Lucknow drinking contaminated water for months’: Is Yogi govt waiting for deaths, asks Sanjay Singh

Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Thursday leveled serious allegations against the Yogi Adityanath government, stating that thousands of people in areas considered VIP, such as Secretariat Colony and Udayganj in Lucknow, have been forced to drink dirty, foul-smelling, and contaminated water for the past eight months.

“As a result, children, the elderly, and women are constantly falling ill. Surprisingly, despite repeated complaints and requests, neither is clean water being provided nor are new borewells being dug,” Sanjay Singh said on Thursday, asking the Yogi government if it is waiting for people to die here, as happened in Indore, before taking any action.

Advertisement

The AAP MP visited the Udayganj area in Lucknow and directly interacted with local residents, listening to their grievances related to contaminated water.

People told him that for months, foul-smelling, muddy, and contaminated water has been coming through taps, causing children, women, and the elderly to fall ill continuously. The situation is so dire that people have to wander far and wide in search of clean water, but the administration is turning a blind eye.

After hearing about the people’s plight, Singh sharply criticized the Yogi government, saying it is not just a matter of negligence but an open crime against the health of the people, which the AAP will not tolerate at any cost.

Pointing out that Lucknow is the capital of Uttar Pradesh, where the chief minister, ministers, and high-ranking officials reside, he said, “If the people in the heart of the capital, in Secretariat Colony and Udayganj, are not getting clean drinking water, one can only imagine the situation in the villages and towns of the state.”

He said the water coming from the taps is so filthy that it is leading to a rapid spread of diseases like diarrhea, stomach pain, vomiting, fever, and skin diseases.

The AAP MP said locals have been taking rounds of the Water Department, municipal corporation, and administration for the past several months. Written complaints were submitted, and meetings were held with officials, but each time they only received assurances. Neither the pipelines were replaced, nor the water tanks cleaned, nor new borewells dug. This is a direct disregard of public health which exposes the government’s insensitivity.

Sanjay Singh said the Yogi government has learned no lesson from Indore where people lost their lives due to contaminated water. He asked if the government will only take action when deaths start occurring in Lucknow as well. Does the lives of the people have no value? He stated that providing clean drinking water is the government’s responsibility, not a favour.

He lamented that on one hand, the government claims to be spending thousands of crores of rupees on the Jal Jeevan Mission and Smart City projects, while on the other, people in the capital itself are forced to drink contaminated water. This is living proof of corruption, negligence, and administrative failure. If the money had been spent properly, people in Lucknow’s colonies would not be in this situation today.

Sanjay Singh demanded that new borewells be dug immediately in the Secretariat Colony and Udayganj areas, the contaminated pipelines be replaced, and until a permanent solution is found, clean drinking water should be supplied through tankers. He also demanded strict action against the officials responsible for supplying contaminated water and that an FIR be registered against them.

If the Yogi government does not address this serious problem immediately, he said, the AAP will launch a massive public movement in Lucknow, taking to the streets to fight for the rights of the people. The AAP will ensure that the people of Lucknow get clean water at all costs and that the government’s criminal negligence will not be tolerated.