Paswan said the council suggested that access to safe water should be a constitutional right and therefore changes were necessary to ensure compliance. “The issue of safe drinking water was discussed in the meeting today. Delhi’s water is not safe for drinking,” Paswan said at a media briefing.

For tapped water supplies, the standards applied to water quality in Delhi are independent of those set by the Food Standards and Safety Authority of India, the country’s food safety regulator.

The Bureau of Indian Standards, the standards body under the consumer affairs ministry, will come out with enforceable quality standards for piped municipal water.

The minister also said both the Delhi High Court and government rules make it mandatory to sell packaged drinking water at label prices and action would be taken against violators.