Tussle over water supply: Give Delhi to us if you cannot govern it, Manohar Lal Khattar tells Arvind Kejriwal

GURUGRAM: Launching a scathing attack against the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government over the ongoing water tussle, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday said if it can’t handle Delhi, it should hand it over to Haryana to govern.
“They blame Haryana for everything. If there is pollution, they blame Haryana for it. When they don’t have reasons to explain something, they blame Haryana. If they can’t handle Delhi, they should give it to Haryana, we will govern Delhi too,” said the CM.
The remarks by Khattar, who was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a grievance committee meeting held in the city, come two days after the Delhi Jal Board, whose vice-chairperson is AAP’s Raghav Chadha, had moved the Supreme Court against the Haryana government for not releasing Delhi’s “legitimate share” of water.
The Delhi government on Monday sought urgent hearing before the top court.
“Even though Haryana is facing a lot of difficulty, the state is providing water to Delhi as per the SC orders. Our water requirement is not less than Delhi. Haryana has a population of 2.9 crore whereas Delhi’s is two crores. We get 2,000 cusecs of water from the Yamuna, out of which we give 1,050 cusecs to the national capital,” said Khattar.
The top court had in 1996 told the Haryana government and other states to share the Yamuna’s water and ensure there was no shortage of drinking water in Delhi.
‘Got less O2 than Delhi did’
Talking about the oxygen crisis during the second wave of the pandemic, Khattar said the Delhi government had said it needed 700 metric tonnes while Haryana got merely 282 metric tonnes. This, he added, was despite the state having more patients and a bigger population than that of Delhi.
“Delhi should have thought before taking our quota of oxygen, especially when it did not have that much of a requirement,” said Khattar, adding that Haryana still managed to ensure that the oxygen requirement of patients was met.