The Haryana Government on Friday told the Delhi High Court that it is releasing more than 1,030 cusecs of water per day for the needs of the national Capital, a claim which was disputed by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).
Haryana made the submission before a Bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul, which witnessed the neighbouring State and DJB accusing each other for the water woes of the Capital. While DJB alleged that Haryana is still not providing water as directed by the Supreme Court in 1996, the State said the civic body wastes the most amount of water in the entire country due to its deficient distribution system.
Haryana said it is releasing 719 cusecs into Munak carrier lined canal (ClC) and also 330 cusecs into Delhi branch (older canal) for use by water treatment plants (WTPs) at Wazirabad and Nangloi. The State also said there was no loss of 80-90 million gallons per day (MGD) due to supply through older canal as contended by DJB and the loss was only there when water was being given through the river.
This claim was also disputed by DJB, represented by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Pinky Anand and advocate Prabal Bagchi. The Bench, however, for the moment refused to go into the inter se water dispute between Delhi and Haryana. It directed Haryana to continue releasing the amount of water as required by the apex court and ordered DJB to connect its Nangloi and Bawana WTP to the Munak ClC within two days.
The court also directed the Delhi Government to implement the lieutenant Governor’s July 9, 2013 order directing DDA to conduct a survey of two villages at Madanpur Dabas and Amar Vihar here and to relocate the bonafide residents there to EWS flats made by the authority in Dwarka. The court directed the city Government to carry out the exercise to free up the land of these two areas for connecting Munak ClC and Dwarka WTP after DJB said it could not make the connection agreed upon two weeks due to encroachment at these two places.