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WATER

ter in the city. I want to tell everyone that headed by retired judge Indermeet Kaur. The court on 25 May directed the Har-
the water being supplied in Delhi comes The High Court had also directed the yana government to ensure that water
from the BJP-ruled states”. chief secretaries of both the states to is supplied to the national capital with-
In November too a controversy over appoint three more persons from the out any hindrance after it was told there
Delhi’s water quality broke out with a Bu- departments concerned in the inspec- were ‘bunds’ on river Yamuna at several
reau of Indian Standards report saying tion team. places apart from mining activity. The
that all 11 water samples from different The idea was to highlight the gaps court’s order came on a plea filed by DJB
locations in Delhi including that from and challenges that prevent the supply seeking sufficient water supply for Delhi.
Krishi Bhawan and the house of Union of adequate water to Delhi and whether “There should be no hindrance in flow
Minister Ram Vilas Paswan did not pass Haryana deliberately stops it. The Delhi of water from there (Haryana) to Delhi,”
its tests. government has blamed Haryana for a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon
On the survey, Mohaniya said: “The not releasing water as per Delhi’s share and Justice A.J. Bhambhani observed in
reason for this suspicion is that on one of supply while Haryana had maintained their order. The direction came after a
hand, Paswan accused DJB of supplying that they are supplying water as much committee, constituted by the high court
dirty water, and on the other hand con- as 1049 cusec against the sanctioned 719 to inspect whether ‘bunds’ have been put
taminated water is supplied from BJP- cusec. in the canals carrying water meant for
ruled Haryana.” While expressing its displeasure to Delhi, told the bench that such obstruc-
Water supply to Delhi has always Haryana, the court said, “our interest lies
been involved in one controversy or the in only making water available to the
other. Sometime back to ensure water common man”. The court strongly asked According to experts, the
supply from Haryana’s Munak canal to Haryana to follow its 2014 order in which
Delhi, the Delhi High Court had consti- the state was asked to provide adequate high ammonia content
tuted a monitoring committee, which water to Delhi. can stall functioning of
water treatment plants as
they are unable to treat
• Fluid situation Water supply to
Delhi has always been involved in water with more than 0.7
one controversy or the other
ppm ammonia. Increased
presence of ammonia in
water is a recurrent issue
between the two states

tions were found at 11 locations on the
Yamuna.
The committee, also comprising re-
tired high court judge Indermeet Kaur
and amicus curiae Rakesh Khanna, and
retired additional chief secretary Nive-
dita Haran, had submitted a report stat-
ing that apart from the ‘bunds’, there was
large-scale mining in Yamuna and one of
its tributaries, the Somb. The report said
that the ‘bunds’ had severely affected the
flow of water in the Yamuna.
Sources in the ministry said the Delhi
national capital region currently faces
a deficit of 200 million gallons per day
(MGD) of its total estimated demand of
1,113 MGD.
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