 "Delhi High Court (Photo - PTI)")
PRI DSB ESPL LGL NAT NRG .NEWDELHI LGD22 DL-HC-HARYANA-WATER Ensuring free flow of Yamuna water to Delhi, Haryana tells HC (Eds: With file photo of HC) New Delhi, May 10 (PIT) The Haryana government told the Delhi High Court on Wednesday it has been ensuring free flow of Yamuna water to the national capital and there are no illegal bundhs or other structures blocking the supply. In its reply filed in response to applications by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) seeking unhindered supply of clean Yamuna water, Haryana also said the issues of quality of water and its distribution between the two states are in the nature of "Interstate river water dispute" and cannot be decided by the high court. Responding to allegations that water from Haryana contained pollutants, the reply said the water at the entry point is clean but gets "heavily polluted" in the territory of Delhi. The DJB's applications were filed in a 2013 PIL by lawyer S B Tripathi seeking sufficient water supply for Delhi. A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad granted time to DJB to respond to the submissions made by Haryana and listed the case for further hearing on May 23. The DJB had moved the high court earlier this year, stating that in spite of an order passed in May 2019 directing removal of "illegal bundhs or blockades" from the river, images "clearly showed" such structures blocking the water flow to Delhi. In its reply, Haryana said the issue of polluted water raised in the application has been dealt with by various other fora, including the Supreme Court, and the high court should first adjudicate the preliminary matter with regard to maintainability of the petition. An application filed by a state or its department against another state is not maintainable before the high Court, especially when it pertains to water dispute, it said. "The present application against raising the issue regarding the quality and low/quantity of the water filed before this Hon'ble Court is totally misconceived. The applications is nothing more than an act of forum shopping," it said. The response also said the Haryana government has complied with the 2019 high court order directing supply of water to Delhi without any hindrance and there were no illegal structures on the river. "It has been submitted earlier by the State of Haryana that Delhi has an allocation of 719 cusecs waters at Munak from all sources which is to be supplied through canal network of Haryana. Haryana is supplying nearly 1,040 cusecs by diverting nearly 321 cusecs from the share of citizens of Haryana to Delhi. It may be pointed out here that till date Haryana has never said anything about reducing the present supplies of 1,040 cusecs," the response said. "Since Delhi is receiving nearly double of its raw water requirements, it can be easily concluded that raising of bundhs in question after proper approval, has not impacted at all the supply of raw water to Delhi. Only because some officers of Delhi Jal Board happen to see these bundhs, these bundhs would not become obstacle in the supply of water to Delhi," it stated. The reply further said Haryana has been extremely vigilant to ensure free flow of river water and accordingly permissions are granted to the mining agency by the competent authority. "It is also important to point out that there is no illegal bundh blockage in River Yamuna and there is free flow of water in River Yamuna & there is no pucca structure i.e. weir, barrage or dam where the ultrasonic flow meter may install and hence, ultrasonic flow meter cannot be installed in River Yamuna," it said. Haryana also asserted that a wrong picture has been painted that it is not supplying clean water and, in fact, DJB has been "grossly negligent" in maintaining hygienic conditions at Wazirabad pond. "The Delhi Jal Board is fully aware that the water at Palla/entry point at Haryana border is clean water and this water is then heavily polluted in the territory of GNCT Delhi i.e. within its borders. That is the major reason why Delhi is giving data pertaining to Ammonical-Nitrogen at Wazirabad pond and not at the entry point," it said. While asserting that the issue of jurisdiction has been continuously raised, Haryana said DJB was in a habit of "filing baseless and vague applications one after the other". In 2019, the Haryana government had submitted that the high court had no jurisdiction to decide on its dispute with Delhi over sharing of the water from river Yamuna and the Upper River Yamuna Board (URYB) was the appropriate body to decide the water sharing dispute between the two states. On May 24, 2019, the high court had directed the Haryana government to ensure water is supplied to the national capital without any hindrance after it was told there were "bundhs" on river Yamuna at several places apart from mining activity. The directions had come after a committee, constituted by the high court to inspect whether "bundhs" have been put in the canals carrying water meant for Delhi, said such obstructions were found at 11 locations on the river Yamuna. The committee, also comprising retired high court judge Justice Indermeet Kaur and amicus curiae Rakesh Khanna, had submitted a report which stated that apart from the "bundhs", there was large scale mining in river Yamuna and one of its tributaries -- Somb, and the structures "have definitely affected the flow of water in the river Yamuna". The DJB, in its recent applications filed through advocate Sumit Chander has said the authorities have failed to comply with the directions issued by the high court with respect to illegal bundhs and blockades. The board claimed in the application that the water coming from Haryana contained several pollutants, which required intervention of the court, and surveys showed that Haryana was the main source of pollution in the Yamuna.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
