New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday hit out at the Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan in connection with the recent Delhi's water quality survey saying that the method used to collect samples was not appropriate.
Mr Kejriwal while addressing the press here said that Delhi government has asked the minister to disclose the location of 11 places where the samples had been collected from, but the minister did not provided it.
As per the report of the survey, Delhi's water quality was poor while Mumbai's was the best.
The survey was part of the study by Consumer Affairs Ministry wherein many metropolitan cities failed 10 out of 11 quality parameters.
The tests were conducted by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) that comes under Consumer Affairs Ministry.
Mr Kejriwal said that only 20 samples were taken to access the water quality of the entire city.
He also said that according to the WHO standards, in such a case the sample needs to be collected for every 10,000 people and added that at least 2,000 samples must be collected for the right result.
The chief minister further said that in the upcoming days Delhi government will pick up five samples per municipal ward in presence of the media. "We also welcome the consumer minister to be a part of it. We will pick up 1,500 to 2,000 samples and get them checked and will then tell the result," he added.
He informed that Delhi Jal Board had collected one lakh fifty five thousand samples between January to September wherein 98.57 per cent samples passed the quality test.
Meanwhile, on the report, Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan stated that drinking tap water was not safe and health hazard for poor families, who reside in slums, clusters.
The minister said that he has asked BIS to come up with water sample. He has emphasized that there no intent to do politics on the matter.
So far, samples have been taken from other cities also in three phases, wherein a total of 21 states have been covered, Mr Paswan said.
'Mumbai is the safest and Delhi is at bottom. We don't want to do politics over this issue and open for joint sample survey, ' Union Minister said and added that he was ready to test in whichever lab they (Delhi government) want.
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