Following the open letter by Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena to jailed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over “water-crisis” in the city, AAP minister Atishi has hit back at the LG, holding him responsible for not averting the issue with a delay in suspension of CEO of the Delhi Jal Board.

In a reply to the Delhi LG, Delhi Minister Atishi wrote a letter to him and accused Saxena of encouraging the officers who obstructed work and did not take any action against them despite repeated requests, the Delhi water minister alleged.

 “I must express my disappointment at this unfortunate missive from the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, which has come to fore as a beratement for the elected Government of Delhi only in response to me beseeching you to suspend an officer who has repeatedly refused and failed to carry out his duties, which, if he had undertaken in a timely manner, would have averted the crisis that the national capital faces this summer,” Atishi said.

 As the Delhi LG accused the AAP government of its failure, Atishi further said that the current crisis of water in Delhi has been artificially created.

“You have maintained stoic silence and complete apathy towards the water-related woes of people of Delhi. But when the actual culprit of this criminal negligence and misfeasance was brought before you, that was when you decided to speak in his defence, which the whole of Delhi knows, is legally and morally indefensible… Your open letter may be intended for optics, but you cannot deny that the current crisis of water in Delhi has been artificially created,” she added.

Mentioning DJB’s fund-related details, Atishi claimed that funds were not released to the DJB despite sending utilisation certificates.

 “Every time DJB responded to one set of objections, the Finance Department sent a new objection. This blatantly unprecedented activity by the Finance Department resulted in all works relating to water resources coming to a grinding halt,” Atishi added.

She also claimed that the national capital was left with no intervention of the LG, despite the AAP government’s several requests.

 “On numerous occasions, I highlighted to you that the CEO (DJB) had not been able to accomplish his duties to satisfaction. However, Delhi was left wanting of your intervention. We share a collective concern for the well-being of the people in Delhi. You, as the LG, have the power, the authority, to change the CEO of Delhi Jal Board…” she said.

 The Delhi water minister had a few days ago written to the L-G, asking him to suspend the CEO of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) after a woman was killed following a quarrel with her neighbour over fetching water from a common tap in the Farsh Bazar area of northeast Delhi.

 In the note, Atishi urged Saxena to “institute an independent enquiry into the acts of omission and commission of the chief secretary, as well as officers of the finance department, urban development department and DJB.”

Days after the communication, Saxena penned a strongly worded open letter to Kejriwal, currently lodged in Tihar jail after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy scam case.

 “I was deeply distressed at the insensitive communication from the Minister for Water… Atishi on Sunday. While I was yet to receive the letter, it characteristically found its way on various social and mainstream media platforms, the moment it was signed. She has chosen to use the unfortunate death of a woman in East Delhi for narrow and partisan political goals,” he charged.