'Select non-political person to collect water samples'

Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Wednesday urged the Delhi government to nominate a non-political person as part of a joint team for collection of water samples from the national capital.

The Delhi government has nominated two members -- Jal Board Deputy Chairman Dinesh Mohani and its member Shaalab Kumar -- for the joint team.

"Mohania is a politician, not a technical expert. I have written to the Delhi government that since deputy chairman is a political person, a non-political person may be nominated in his place," Paswan told reporters.

There is no work for politician. The Delhi Jal Board CEO would be a better choice as the Central government has appointed Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Director General and Deputy Director General as members of the joint team that would take the water samples here, he said.

Last week, Paswan had released the second phase of the BIS study which stated that Delhi along with Kolkata and Chennai failed in almost 10 out of 11 quality parameters of drinking water.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Sunday termed "false and politically motivated" a BIS report, which stated that drinking water in the national capital failed quality tests.

On Tuesday, the Delhi government said it would set up 32 teams to collect water samples from each ward in the national capital, test them and put the results in public domain within a month.