New Delhi: The BJP said on Tuesday that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's announcement to waive water arrears was a "lollipop" for Delhiites ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections and alleged that half of the residents in the city were deprived of piped water supply.
Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said that announcement of water bill waiver by the Kejriwal government was made in view of the upcoming Assembly elections.
"Kejriwal is trying to mislead the people by making announcement of such freebies before the polls," Tiwari said in a statement.
Rajya Sabha MP and former Union minister Vijay Goel said he will conduct raids to "expose" the chief minister's claim that his government has checked the activities of water tanker mafia.
In a major sop ahead of the Assembly polls due early next year, Kejriwal announced waving water arrears of consumers in colonies categorised E, F, G and H covering majority of the middle-class households.
"Kejriwal thinks he can fool the people and make announcements of freeing everything hoping to win Assembly elections. It is because he is trying to hide his failures of the past 4.5 years," Goel said.
Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta asked the AAP government to bring out a white paper on water supply in the city and alleged that the announcement was made after the government collected crores of rupees as arrears with penalties.
"Crores of rupees have already been paid by people as arrears and penalties. So, this is nothing but a lollipop to the people before the assembly elections.
Delhi BJP vice president and a member of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) Jai Prakash, however, welcomed the decision seeking part of its credit for his party. He also questioned the timing of the move.
"We welcome the decision, but the credit goes to us also. We raised the issue of inflated bills at every meeting of the Delhi Jal Board for two years. Why didn't they do it earlier? Why now? Just because the elections are nearing?" he asked.
Gupta claimed that half of the residents in the city were deprived of piped water. In many areas complaints of supply of contaminated water is also common, he said at a press conference at the Delhi BJP office.
"Kejriwal is trying to hide failures of his government in ensuring proper water supply across the city. He also claimed that his government has checked tanker mafia, while in past 4.5 years only two water tankers were caught while around 2,000 private tankers operate in the city," he claimed.
The ruling AAP has in the past announced free public transport including Delhi Metro for women commuters, full waiver on up to 200 units of power consumption and is also working on its poll promise of free wifi across the city
