BJP, AAP spar over Kejriwal govt's water bill waiver scheme

The BJP and the AAP sparred over the Kejriwal government's water bill waiver scheme at a public meeting in Mukherjee Nagar here on Friday, with both sides accusing the other of resorting to "bullying".

Former Union minister Vijay Goel alleged that Aam Aadmi Party leader Dilip Pandey, accompanied by "goons" of his party, "attacked and disrupted" the meeting organised by a local resident welfare association where people were demanding refund of the amount paid by them towards water bills.

Pandey, however, said he went to the meeting to have a dialogue over the issue with Goel but was "pushed away" by BJP workers and police.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on last Tuesday announced graded waiver of water bill arrears with full exemption in case of colonies dominated by lower middle class people.

The BJP and AAP workers raised slogans and indulged in heated arguments as Goel addressed the meeting.

The water bill waiver sop, announced just a few months before the Assembly polls in Delhi, has led the BJP to term it as a "freebie" handed out by the AAP government for electoral gains.

"In the public meeting organised by the resident welfare association, people said was it their fault that they honestly paid their water bills. Dilip Pandey and the goons of Kejriwal attacked and disrupted it," Goel alleged.

He said that a complaint has been lodged at the Mukherjee Nagar police station.

Goel has been demanding that water bills paid by people before the announcement of the waiver scheme by the Kejriwal government should also be refunded.

Pandey asked the BJP leader if his party could promise in its manifesto to refund the water bills paid by the people and whether BJP-ruled states could take such a step.