With the rising water level of the Yamuna causing flooding in many parts of the city, AAP and the BJP continued to spar on Thursday after 1.62 lakh cusecs of water was released from the Hathnikund barrage in Haryana.
Water Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said “uncontrolled volumes of water” being released was causing flooding. Hitting back, Devender Singh, Haryana CM’s adviser (irrigation), said AAP’s allegation was “absolutely false” as Hathnikund is a barrage and there is “no way” to store water in it like a dam.
“Hathnikund is a barrage designed to divert, regulate water. If an attempt is made to stop the water from coming into the barrage, it can damage all the gates of the barrage and this water can turn into a fierce flood and cause huge destruction in Haryana and Delhi,” Mr. Singh said.
Mr. Bharadwaj alleged that five out of the 32 gates of the ITO barrage – operated by the Haryana government – in Delhi were jammed, and due to this water was not able to leave the city quickly. Responding to this, Mr. Singh said the required number of gates had been opened to maximum limit for safe discharge of floodwaters.
“The highest discharge of water passed smoothly without any hindrance. Nowhere was there back flow at ITO barrage. There is no hindrance to free flow of the Yamuna,” he said.
By 9 p.m. on Thursday, the water released from the barrage decreased to 74,078 cusecs, according to Delhi government data.
Delhi Jal Board vice-chairperson and AAP MLA Somnath Bharti shared a purported video of the Hathnikund barrage on Twitter and questioned whether the unprecedented flood was orchestrated by the BJP as part of its “political vendetta”.
“This shows that one channel which is allegedly towards U.P. is completely dry and Hathnikund surplus water is diverted towards Delhi. Is the unprecedented flood orchestrated by @BJP4India a political vendetta towards people of Delhi because they have been electing @AamAadmiParty over BJP successively since 2013?” Mr. Bharti tweeted.
