Modi 'hiding face' on Delhi statehood demand, says AAP

Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "hiding his face and making excuses" on the demand for full statehood, the AAP on Tuesday said that the Delhi government will agree to all demands of the Centre if it fulfilled the statehood demand.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in writing, had promised the Delhi residents that the Bharatiya Janata Party will grant full statehood to Delhi. Today, Modi is hiding his face and making excuses to avoid this issue," Delhi Cabinet Minister and AAP leader Gopal Rai said.

Rai also said that his party is "ready to comply with all their (central government) demands" if they just fulfil their promise of granting full statehood to Delhi.

The AAP leader's attack came after Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Manoj Tiwari dubbed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a "liar" over the issue of supply of water by Haryana to the national capital and claimed that the neighbouring state was providing more water every year.

"As far as the water is concerned, the High Court and the Supreme Court is hearing the matter. Haryana had sent us a letter to request us to withdraw the case and that it will supply water. So, if Kejriwal is a liar, why did Haryana write to us?

"In Delhi, everyone knows that Kejriwal is the one who gave Delhi 20,000 litres of free water and electricity at half the cost," he said.

Citing a Right to Information reply, Tiwari had earlier said: "The Haryana government gives more water to Delhi every year."

He said that the Haryana government -- which provides water to the Haidarpur, Iradat Nagar and Bawana water treatment plants in Delhi -- gave 5.09 lakh million litres of water in 2015 and 5.46 lakh million litres the next year.

AAP'S National Secretary Pankaj Gupta also took a dig at BJP, saying that "the nation knows how much the BJP lies" and that Manoj Tiwari should go for an RTI reply to know the difference between water supplied earlier and now.

"He should see how rampant the water mafia was before and how it is hiding in a corner now," Gupta said.

--IANS

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