Delhi News Highlights: AAP accuses BJP workers of vandalising Jal Board office during protests over water crisis

Delhi water minister Atishi alleged that the BJP workers had used 'matkas' to vandalise the Jal Board office in Chhatarpur. "Ramesh Bhiduri collected his men to go to the Chhatarpur office. There is a video of this which clearly shows this," Atishi said. AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj had earlier shared a purported video of the incident on X. 

Delhi minister Atishi on Sunday accused the BJP of destroying the wate pipelines in the National Capital. "Yesterday, when the pipeline from Sonia Vihar to South Delhi was damaged, the repair took five to six hours, which affected water supply," Atishi said while addressing a press conference.

The Delhi Police on Sunday arrested a man on the run for three murders, including that of his wife. Nitin Verma, who had jumped parole in 2009, a year after he was arrested, and had been absconding since, had killed his wife on the suspicion of an extra-marital affair. 'On April 19, 2008, information was received at Dwarka Police Station that two or three people had been murdered in street number 9, in Palam Village of Delhi,' news agency PTI quoted Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Amit Goel as saying.

Amid the water crisis in the National Capital, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva blamed the Aam Aadmi Party for not coming up with an action plan for the summer season. ""I want to ask one thing from Arvind Kejriwal, Saurabh Bharadwaj and Atishi that if they knew about the water problems of summer time, then what solutions did they come up with?" news agency PTI quoted Sachdeva as saying. He further cited "water theft, loot by tanker mafias and wastage of water through leaked pipes that should have been fixed in the last 10 years" as the reason for the crisis. 

The Aam Aadmi Party accused the Bharaitya Janata Party workers of vandalising a Delhi Jal Board office during their protests over the water crisis in the National Capital. Sharing a video of the purported incident on X, AAP minister Saurabh Bharadwaj wrote, "See the BJP leaders wearing sashes and workers shouting slogans in support of BJP leaders, destroying government property at the Delhi Jal Board office." "Who is breaking the water pipelines at various places? Whose conspiracy is this?" Bharadwaj questioned.

Amid the water crisis in Delhi, BJP workers on Sunday held a protest in Mayur Vihar against Chief Minsister Arvind Kejriwal, news agency PTI reported.

Fire breaks out at a building in Mundka area of Delhi. Efforts are underway to douse the fire, PTI said in a post on X.

Amid protest against Delhi Jal Board over water crisis in the city, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj took a swipe at the AAP government saying the crisis is not natural but created by the ruling party. Swaraj told PTI, "The water crisis is not natural but is created by the AAP government, through which they do corruption and support the illegal water tanker mafia. The SC had asked them about what are they doing for water crisis and tanker mafia. They did not call all-party meeting despite IMD cautioning about the heatwave in March. They did not repair the infrastructure of DJB. A pipe had burst recently in GK, people kept on asking but they did not take cognizance. I made the complaint, it was repaired soon. There should be an intent."

Amid the water crisis in the Capital, AAP MLA Dilip K Pandey and party workers reached the residence of Union Jal Shakti Minister to raise the issue. However, they could not meet him and Pandey told PTI, “We wrote a letter to him yesterday. We tried to reach out to him through mail, SMS, and WhatsApp and asked for an appointment. Someone received our letter yesterday but when we came here today, we were told that he is not here at his residence. We don’t know what’s the truth. However, we want the Central government to intervene in this situation and give the responsibility of interstate coordination to CR Patil.”

Day after holding 'matka' protest in Delhi over water crisis, BJP workers are back again on streets today agitating. BJP MP from West Delhi, Kamaljeet Sehrawat has also joined the protest, as seen in a video posted by ANI on X. Sehrawat also inspected a water pipeline in Dwarka.

After finding several large bolts cut from the main water pipeline in South Delhi, Water Minister Atishi wrote a letter to Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora seeking deployment of police to patrol and protect the pipelines for next 15 days. Several large bolts been cut seemed to indicate foul play and sabotage, Atishi claimed in her letter. Atishi further said South Delhi will experience 25% water shortage as pumping of water was stopped for 6 hours in the pipeline during maintenance work.

UPSC Prelims Exam today!

Candidates appearing for Civil Services Examination have reached examination centres in Delhi. Below is a video shared by news agency PTI from an exam centre in Kashmere Gate/

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Delhiites, be prepared for high temperatures in city today !

After the mercury hit 44.5 degree Celsius, six notches above the season’s average on Saturday, the India Meteorological Department has issued an “orange” alert for the next three days in the Capital. The weather department warns Delhiites to “be prepared” as heatwave conditions are likely to prevail in several parts, news agency PTI reported. There will be mainly clear skies today and the maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 45 and 32 degree Celsius respectively.

So, remain hydrated and avoid outdoors during peak temperature hours.

A Delhi court on Saturday granted bail to Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah in a money laundering case in connection to alleged terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir, news agency PTI reported. The court, while passing the order, noted that Shah had been in custody for six years and 10 months in the case in which the maximum punishment was seven years. Although Additional Sessions Judge Dheeraj Mor observed that the other cases in which Shah was in custody were serious in nature, the judge said that could be not be a sufficient ground for declining him statutory bail, given that he had not been convicted in any case yet.

DMRC officials on Saturday said that there will be changes in the timings of the first and last Yellow line metro timings due to work being underway on a 490-metre section of Janakpuri West to R K Ashram corridor of Phase-IV, news agency PTI reported. The last train on the Yellow Line will depart at 10:45 pm instead of 11 pm from Samaypur Badli to Millennium City Centre Gurugram and at 9:30 pm instead of 11 pm from Millennium City Centre Gurugram to Samaypur Badli, PTI quoted DMRC's principal executive director corporate communications, Anuj Dayal, as saying. The first train service on Monday will start at 7 am instead of 6 am from Samaypur Badli to Millennium City Centre Gurugram, he said. There will be no train services between Samaypur Badli and Jahangirpuri after 11 pm on Sunday and before 7 am on Monday, Dayal added. 

The Delhi High Court ordered the removal of social media posts made by Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Ragini Nayak, against journalist Rajat Sharma. In the posts, the leaders had alleged that Sharma had used "abusive language" during his show on the Lok Sabha election results day. "It cannot be denied that the citizens have a right to freedom of speech and expression but there was also a corresponding duty to remain truthful to the incident. The X posts berating the plaintiff are nothing but an over-sensationalisation and depiction of facts which are patently false," the court stated in its 18-page order passed on Friday. Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, while passing the order, noted that it was prima facie evident from the footage of the debate that the plaintiff, Sharma, had "barely intervened for a few seconds and no abusive language was used."

A group of protestors was booked for allegedly trying to enter the residence of Uion Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, news agency PTI quoted officials as saying. A case was registered under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) at the South Avenue Police station on Thursday, officials said. According to the FIR, around 20 people had gathered outside Pradhan's residence, carrying pamphlets of National Students' Union of India, despite section 144 of CrPC being imposed in the area. The group was raising slogans and later tried to enter the Union Minister's residence, PTI reported quoting officials. 

Speaking on the water crisis in the National Capital, BJP MP Kamaljeet Sehrawat claimed that the issue had risen because of private tankers "working in tandem with the state government and ministers", news agency PTI reported. Sehrawat said that her colleague and BJP MP from North West Delhi Yogender Chandoliya was present at the Munak Canal, adding that the latter had informed that there was a dearth of water there. "Even Delhi Minister Atishi has accepted that there is a deficiency of only 0.5-7 percent," she said.

Amid the crisis in National Capital, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said that a case had emerged wherein Rs. 35,000 was being taken from the people residing in Inder Puri's Budh Nagar in return of water supply, news agency PTI reported. "An illegal connection has been linked to the Jal Board pipe. There’s no meter, no legal work," he alleged. Sachdeva questioned the Aam Aadmi Party, asking that if the water could be provided illegally, why was it not being supplied in a legal way. "Is it because the money goes in your pockets?" news agency PTI quoted him as saying.

Delhi water minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi said that in the Upper Yamuna River Board meeting held on Friday, Himachal Pradesh had reiterated that it was ready to provide water to Delhi, news agency ANI reported. "Himachal Pradesh has clarified that out of its share of the Upper Yamuna water, it has 130 cusec surplus water," Atishi said while addressing a press conference in Delhi. Atishi added that while the Upper Yamuna River Board would take some time to assess calculations, Delhi had made a humanitarian appeal to the Haryana government to discharge additional water. The Delhi minister stated that there was a possibility of a delegation of senior officials from the Capital travelling to Chandigarh to meet Haryana officials.

Fire tenders who reached Sector 67 in Noida are still trying to extinguish the blaze.

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Delhi Minister Atishi held an emergency meeting as water crisis continued to grapple the residents of the Capital. Both Congress and BJP workers organized protests against the water crisis. Atishi in a press conference said, “Delhi Jal Board is providing around 10mgd water through tankers. We did an emergency meeting where we told the Delhi Jal Board to do a new assessment in places where extra tankers are needed and where tankers are not going. Not just this, we are increasing the fixed points of water tankers.”

Tis Hazari Court extended the judicial custody of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar till June 22 in the Swati Maliwal assault case. Kumar is accused of assaulting AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal on May 13 at the chief minister’s official residence.

Kumar was arrested on May 18 and he was booked under various Indian Penal Code provisions, including those related to criminal intimidation, assault or criminal force on a woman with the intent to disrobe and attempt to commit culpable homicide.

Delhi Water Minister holds an emergency meeting with officials as water crisis continued to affect the Capital. Meanwhile, Congress party workers are holding a protest against water crisis in Krishnanagar.

The Delhi government has imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 for water wastage and after coming under fire from political opponents and the Supreme Court, the government said earlier that it has reduced losses from the Munak Canal, which brings water to Delhi through Haryana, by 25%. Atishi had alleged Haryana of reducing water supply to the Capital, thus adding distress.

Fire breaks out in a chemical factory in Tronica City industrial area of Loni, Ghaziabad. Efforts are underway to douse the fire, PTI said in a post on X.

As Delhiites continued to grapple under water crisis, the Congress party workers held a protest in Krishna Nagar. Taking to streets holding earthern pots, the party workers raised the issue faced mainly by poor people. In a video posted by news agency ANI on X, A Congress worker said, "The public is being cheated in the name of water...Poor people are suffering the most...The governments are playing the blame game...Why was water not arranged in advance ?... They were busy doing politics...The Congress party will hold a 'matka phod' protest in Delhi to wake up the deaf and dumb government...They have connived with tanker mafia..."

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court Thursday asked the Delhi government to approach the Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB) to seek additional water supply for the National Capital Territory (NCT) and directed the Board to decide on any such request at the earliest.

In the early morning today, five shops in Vasant Vihar market were gutted in fire. No one was injured in the fire and the blaze was brought under control by fire tenders who rushed to the spot immediately. This comes days after a massive fire gutted around 80 shops in Chandni Chowk.

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