Toxic Yamuna row: Delhi, Punjab CMs meet ECI to accuse BJP-led Haryana govt

Delhi chief minister Atishi and her Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann met Election Commission (EC) officials on Tuesday, 28 January, alleging that the BJP-led Haryana government is deliberately releasing alarming levels of ammonia into the Yamuna river, endangering Delhi's water supply.

Following the meeting, Atishi told a press conference, "We presented our concerns to the chief election commissioner and other election commissioners. The ammonia levels in the Yamuna have risen to 7 ppm (parts per million), which exceeds the filtration capacity of Delhi's water treatment plants. The EC has told us that it will listen to Haryana's version before taking a decision that benefits the people of Delhi. We trust the EC for free-and-fair elections."

Mann called for immediate action, saying, "We have demanded additional water from the Munak canal to compensate for the toxic inflow into the Yamuna. The EC will also review last year's ammonia-level data. We are confident that it will rule in Delhi's favour."

Atishi had written two letters to the EC seeking an immediate meeting with the officials of the poll panel — one on Monday and another on Tuesday morning.

Delhi's water crisis took a sharp political turn on Monday, 27 January, with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Kejriwal accusing the Haryana government of indulging in "biological warfare".

In a fiery post on X, Kejriwal alleged, 'Poison is being mixed into the Yamuna to make its water untreatable. If people in Delhi consume this water, many will die. This is nothing short of a mass murder.'

Atishi said Haryana chief minister Nayab Saini has acknowledged the presence of ammonia in the water. She also noted that Delhi Jal Board (DJB) CEO Shilpa Shinde has confirmed the elevated ammonia levels in the Yamuna water.

However, Shinde later dismissed the AAP leaders' claims as "factually incorrect" and "misleading".

Meanwhile, accusing AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal of making a ‘dangerous statement’ with implications for India's federal structure — in his allegation that Haryana was poisoning the water of Yamuna — the BJP on Tuesday urged the Election Commission to bar him from campaigning .

A BJP delegation, comprised of union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Bhupender Yadav and Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh met all three members of the ECI and requested them to ask the AAP leader to retract his charge and apologise for creating "panic" among people.

They also demanded legal action against Kejriwal.

There cannot be a more irresponsible statement against a serving chief minister made by somebody who held the position of CM till recently, Sitharaman said, adding a claim that the ECI had promised firm action.

The BJP's memorandum to the EC said Kejriwal has not produced any evidence or basis of the allegations of such poisoning.

It said: 'Such inflammatory statements, made without any evidence whatsoever, constitute a severe breach of several electoral and other statutes in addition to electoral ethics. These allegations are particularly concerning as they involve matters of public health and safety, potentially causing unnecessary panic among millions of Delhi residents.'

The ammonia controversy has emerged as a critical point of contention ahead of the 5 February Delhi assembly polls. Amid water shortages in parts of the capital due to a reduced treatment capacity at the DJB plants, the AAP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continue to trade sharp accusations.

With the EC set to examine data and hear arguments from both sides, the resolution to this crisis remains uncertain, even as political temperatures rise.

Edited agency inputs