Delhi polls: EC asks Kejriwal to give proof on Yamuna poisoning claim

New Delhi: After the Election Commission of India (ECI) asked Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal to furnish evidence on his claim that the BJP-led Haryana government poisoned the Yamuna water supply to Delhi, the former CM said his remarks were made in public interest.

In a notice to the AAP chief, the poll panel asked him to furnish "evidentiary support" to his claim by 8 pm on January 30 after Kejriwal claimed that had the Delhi Jal Board not stopped the water from coming into Delhi, it would have triggered a mass genocide.

The panel's notice said: "The Commission also perused the report of Delhi Jal Board which does not mention any poisoning in Yamuna. Consequently, there is no mention in the report that engineers of Delhi Jal Board have stopped the poisoned waters at the Delhi border itself before it could poison Yamuna," the panel's notice said and asked Kejriwal to prove the factual foundation behind the allegations.

 "As regards the allegations of Poisoning, it is expected that there must be a factual foundation to the allegations especially when the veracity of the statements made by you is contested, then you must be able to back your statements on a factual basis," the ECI said.

In the 14-page reply to the ECI, Kejriwal said the “alleged statements” attributed to him were made as his public duty to highlight the “severe toxicity and contamination” of raw water received from the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Haryana.

He said the ammonia level in raw water received from Haryana was so “extreme” that water treatment plants in Delhi are unable to process it down to safe and permissible limits for human consumption.