WE WILL SHUT DOWN THE TAJ: SC TO CENTRE

The Supreme Court on Wednesday came down heavily on the Centre and the ASI for their lethargy in not being able to protect the iconic Taj Mahal and warned that "either we will shut down the Taj or you demolish or restore it."

The apex court was furious as the Uttar Pradesh government failed to come out with a vision document to protect the monument. A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak was upset with the authorities for not taking any step to preserve the Taj Mahal and blamed it on "sheer lethargy."

The court said the Taj Mahal is more beautiful than the Eiffel Tower and could have solved the country's foreign exchange problem. "Eighty million go to watch Eiffel Tower which looks like a TV Tower.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed the Central and Delhi governments and the capital's civic agencies for blaming each other but doing nothing to reduce water consumption and preservation of groundwater, and sought action plan to check its depletion.

A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta said that groundwater depletion is a serious problem here and asked the Centre for immediate, intermediate and long-term measures to check its depletion.

The bench took into note a NITI Aayog report which said that various authorities were passing the buck and shying away from their responsibility.

The report said there was over-exploitation of groundwater in several cities, especially Delhi, said the court, adding there would be no groundwater in Delhi by 2021 which means that "people cannot survive" here.