KUALA LUMPUR: A war of words erupted between a senior minister and Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Azmin Ali in the Dewan Rakyat over the state’s river water woes.

The heated exchange began with Azmin taking a swipe at Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar when debating the 2017 Budget speech.

“I highly appreciate the Natural Resources and Environment Minister taking the initiative to hold discussions with the state on how to work together to solve the problem.

“I give the assurance to the minister that I will work with him to solve the problem, but I will not work with Tanjung Karang (Noh’s parliamentary constituency).

“I will fight him (Noh) till the very end because he has politicised the water issue,” he said.

He chided Noh by saying that he could not even “take care of prawns” when he was agricultural minister, yet he now wants to talk about river water.

An irate Noh stood up and accused Azmin and his administration of corruption but the Gombak MP merely continued with his debate.

Azmin went on to inform the House that a joint task force would carry out periodic inspection of river water and not only when contamination is detected.

“The ministry also agreed to accept the analysis of river water samples collected by the Selangor Water Management Board and Air Selangor which will be used to haul the culprits to court,” he said in reference to the recent river contamination affecting the Semenyih river water treatment plant.

However, Noh continued to accuse Azmin of corruption and the Mentri Besar asked Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia to order the minister to retract his accusations.

Azmin then accused Noh of being “a thief, robber and corrupt”.

Pandikar Amin ordered both men to sit down and adjourned proceedings for lunch break at 1pm amidst continued exchanges between the two lawmakers.

Later, at the Parliament lobby, Azmin said he would leave it to the police to investigate alleged sabotage of the Semenyih river.-thestar