Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday alleged that the SAD-BJP Government in Punjab has "lost moral right" to continue as it has "miserably failed" in providing basic amenities like safe drinking water to the people of the State.
"After so many years of Independence, villages in Punjab are still deprived of drinking water," Kejriwal said on the second day of his five-day Punjab tour, at Teja Ruhela Village. He assured availability of drinking water to all villages in Punjab within one month if the AAP was voted to power in the 2017 Assembly poll.
"I have found that several villages of Punjab are still deprived of safe drinking water. As a result, most of the families of the area were affected by water-borne diseases," Kejriwal said, adding, "If a State Government fails to provide even drinking water to people, it has no moral right to continue in power."
"No State Government so far, be it of SAD-BJP or Congress, ever gave any heed to the villagers cry for drinking water," he said.
Kejriwal lashed out at the Akali Government for contamination of water due to use of insecticides and pesticides.
He rued that instead of providing them drinking water, authorities just painted warnings on the walls saying "groundwater is unfit for human consumption".
Kejriwal, who arrived in Punjab on Thursday, is on a five-day political visit to the State ahead of the February 2017 Assembly polls.
Villagers told the AAP leaders that instead of ensuring safe drinking water for residents, Government agencies had only put up warnings that the water was contaminated. The village is located close to the India-Pakistan border.