DJB may move court over less water coming from Haryana

NEWDELHI: Pointing out that water from Haryana is coming in lesser quantity than what is allocated to the Capital, Delhi Jal Board vicechairman Dinesh Mohaniya on Wednesday said the DJB would wait for a few days before approaching the court.

“We will wait for another day or two and will approach court after that as this is a direct contempt. We are still 100 cusecs short in terms of the water received from Haryana,” Mohaniya said.

According to Mohaniya, the water volume coming from Haryana has increased from 800 cusecs to 930 cusecs. So while there is still some improvement, the volume is still far below Delhi’s “rightful share” of 1,044 cusecs.

Earlier, on Tuesday, the Delhi high court told the Haryana government that it has to stick to its 2014 direction, specifying the total volume of water to be released to Delhi every day. It also ordered the Delhi government to release money to carry out repairs in a sub-branch canal that has suffered a breach.

The court’s directions came while hearing an application filed by the DJB asking for directions to the Haryana government to maintain water supply levels fixed by the court earlier as 719 cusecs per day in the Munak canal and 330 cusecs per day in the Delhi sub branch canal.

For more than a month, DJB has been facing problems in treating water as the three plants at Wazirabad, Chandrawal and Haidarpur have not been running at full capacity since January 30 due to high levels of ammonia in the Yamuna and, now, because of less water.

HARYANA TO RAISE ISSUE OF ‘UNTREATED WATER’ WITH DELHI

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday said that a committee would be constituted to raise the issue of supply of “untreated water” from the Okhla barrage to Yamuna with the Delhi government. The committee will be set up under the chairmanship of the agriculture and farmers’ welfare minister, OP Dhankar, Khattar said. “This is a serious issue... The committee would discuss the matter with the Delhi government as well as with the Centre,” said Khattar.