Delhi Water Minister Atishi said she will sit on an indefinite hunger strike at Bhogal in south Delhi from Friday noon to press on her demand for getting 100 million gallons of water per day from Haryana.
At a press conference, Atishi said she will first visit Rajghat at 11 AM on Friday to pay tributes to Mahatma Gandhi whose path of Satyagraha was the only option available as no water was provided to Delhi.
"Delhi requires 1,005 MGD of water out of which 613 MGD comes from Haryana. Since the last two weeks, Haryana has reduced this to 513 MGD. The 100 MGD less water has caused around 28 lakh people in the city to crave for every drop of water," she said.
The minister claimed that Haryana has refused to release water and her letter to the Prime Minister also did not help so she is forced to sit on the hunger strike for the rightful share of Delhi's water and 28 lakh affected people in the city.
The total water supply in Delhi is 1005 MGD (million gallons per day) out of which 60 per cent (613 MGD) through Munak canal and Wazirabad barrage, 25 percent (257 MGD) from UP and 15 percent (135 MGD) from ground water, Delhi government sources said.
Delhi is facing an unprecedented heatwave as a result the demand for water has increased.
Instead of helping meet Delhi’s higher demand, BJP-ruled Haryana government has reduced Delhi’s share of water supply drastically, sources alleged.
Delhi's population has tripled since 1994 but its share of water in Yamuna has remained the same. Delhi gets its share of Yamuna water through a 1994 MoU between the northern states including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, and Rajasthan, they said.
Through this MoU, UYRB (Upper Yamuna River board) was constituted under the Ministry of Jal Shakti to enforce the agreement. Delhi’s share of water has been constant at 1005 MGD since 1994, when its population was 1.1 crore. Now, when Delhi’s population has increased 3 times, the water supply is still the same, sources said.
Delhi with a population of 3 crore receives 1,005 MGD of water, while Haryana with 3 crore of population receives 6,500 MGD of water, they said.
Since the 1994 agreement has outlived its purpose, the Delhi government has been asking for its revision for several years now, but the Centre has refused to take it up, they alleged.
The agreement has a clause that it can be revisited in 2025 after completion of 30 years, they said.
In 2019, the Delhi government signed an MoU with the Himachal Pradesh government to procure an additional 50 MGD of water but the Haryana government is not letting water from Himachal reach Delhi, they alleged.
The proposal is pending with the Upper Yamuna River Board, where Haryana has raised unnecessary and false concerns like Himachal Pradesh does not have sufficient water, they added.
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