Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Tuesday wrote an open letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Saxena, in the letter, claimed that he was deeply distressed at the 'insensitive communication' from Delhi Minister Atishi.
"She has chosen to use the unfortunate death of a woman in East Delhi for narrow and partisan political goals," the letter reads.
"Your minister's hasty missive to me is an admission of these failures and defaults of performance of your government and amount to facile attempts at shrugging responsibility off, a complex problem," it added.
Asserting that this unfortunate incident (woman's death) is not the only such case of its kind in the context of Delhi, he said many such incidents over water scarcity have happened in the past primarily due to the failure of the government.
"Such instances have become a recurrent phenomenon year after year and have been widely reported in media over the last 10 years. I am enclosing a snapshot of some news clippings, starting 2017 for illustration. Water woes in the capital, especially in settlements where the poor live, have exacerbated over the last decade.Your minister’s hasty missive to me is an admission of these failures and defaults of performance of your government and amount to facile attempts at shrugging responsibility off, a complex problem," he added.
Earlier on Sunday, Delhi minister Atishi wrote to VK Saxena asking him to suspend the CEO of Delhi Jal Board after a woman was killed following a quarrel with her neighbour over taking water from a common tap in Farsh Bazar area in north-east Delhi.
In the note, Atishi, who also holds the water portfolio, urged Saxena to institute an independent enquiry into the acts of omission and commission of Chief Secretary, as well as officers of Finance Department, Urban Development Department and DJB.
Hitting out at the Saxena, Atishi said that the Delhi LG is responsible for stopping the work of Jal Board and accused him of encouraging officers who allegedly stopped the work.