Water crisis: Delhi minister Atishi’s blood sugar, pressure levels dip on 2nd day of hunger strike

Water crisis: Water Minister Atishi’s blood sugar level dipped by 16 units while her blood pressure also fell on Saturday, the second day of her indefinite fast demanding the release of the city’s rightful share of water by Haryana, according to the Delhi government.

Atishi started the ‘Pani Satyagraha’ at Bhogal in south Delhi on Friday. She has claimed that Haryana has reduced Delhi’s share of Yamuna water to 513 million gallons per day (MGD) amid the persistent heat, affecting over 28 lakh people in the national capital.

Also read: Delhi records maximum temperature of 39.4 degrees Celsius

The Delhi government, in a statement on Saturday, said that on the second day of her hunger strike, Atishi’s blood pressure was 119/79 mmHg, blood sugar 83 mg/d, weight 65.1 kg and oxygen level 98.

On Friday, her blood pressure was 132/88 mmHg, blood sugar 99 mg/dL, weight 65.8 kg and oxygen level 98, it said.

“Doctors say rapid fall in blood sugar level is dangerous if hunger strike continues, the sugar level will decrease further and this can increase ketone level in the body,” the statement said.

“No matter how much pain we have to bear, hunger strike will continue until people of Delhi get their rightful share of water,” Atishi was quoted as saying in the statement.

Delhi is dependent on Uttar Pradesh and Haryana for the supply of drinking water.

The Aam Aadmi Party has claimed that of the 1,005 MGD of water supplied to Delhi daily, the city should get 613 MGD from Haryana. But the national capital is getting less than 513 MGD water from Haryana, the party has claimed.

Currently, the national capital is facing the acute water crisis as taps in several regions of the city are running dry and the people are forced to wait for the water tankers in the scorching heat.

Meanwhile, the Political blame game between the Delhi government and the Haryana government is continuing for several days now as the AAP putting all of it on the Haryana saying that they are not releasing the agreed amount of water to the capital, while the neighbouring state claims that they are releasing more water than that.

(With inputs from PTI)