If You Don't Act Against 'Tanker Mafia', We'll Ask Delhi Police : Supreme Court To Delhi Govt On Water Crisis

The Supreme Court (today on May 12), raised serious concerns regarding the loss of water in Delhi due to several factors like Tanker mafia. The court asked the Delhi Government if any action has been taken against the same.“If water is coming from Himachal then where is the water going in Delhi. There is so much of …as we know tanker mafia is working. Have you taken action against it….Everybody is saying that in Delhi Tanker mafia is working and the water is probably consumed and engulfed by the tanker mafia and you are not taking any action”, Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, the presiding judge of the two-judge bench, as the counsel representing the Governemnt of National Capital Territory of Delhi.The Court also added that if the government does not take action, the matter will be handed over to the Delhi Police. “If you are not taking any action then we will hand it over to the Delhi police to take action against the Tanker mafia. People are suffering. The same water is coming through tanker and in the pipeline there is no water. We are seeing visuals in every channel, tanker mafia working in Delhi. What measures have you taken?”, Justice Mishra said.After perusing the affidavits, the Bench also pointed out that the matter had come up in 2018, 19 and 2021 and that this is the recurring problem. Based on this the Court posed: “What measures have you taken to control the loss of water.” In view of this, the Court asked the Delhi Government to file an affidavit against the action taken for the illegal transportation of water. The order passed by the bench comprising read as follows: “Govt. of NCT shall file the affidavit for the measures taken by the Delhi Government to prevent loss of water. Other parties may also file an additional affidavit is they so desire. The affidavits may be filed by today or tomorrow (before the hearing).” A Vacation Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Prasanna B Varale was hearing the Delhi Government's plea seeking directions to the State of Haryana for immediate release of water to the crisis-hit national capital. The petition underscored the acute shortage of water faced by its citizens amidst the severe heatwave prevailing across the nothern states. Further, it also apprised that the State of Himachal Pradesh has agreed to share its surplus water with Delhi. However, it does not share a physical boundary with the Union Territory, and thus, the water is required to be routed through existing water channels/river systems in the State of Haryana to eventually be released to Delhi at the Wazirabad barrage. Previously, the Court had directed the Himachal Pradesh Government to transfer 137 cusecs of water to the Hathnikund barrage in Haryana and asked the Haryana Government to facilitate the transfer of the surplus water received from HP to Delhi through the Wazirabad barrage. In furtherance to this, the Court also directed the Upper Yamuna River Board to submit a status report regarding the measures it has undertaken to ensure the onward supply of water released from Himachal Pradesh to Delhi. Following this, the day before yesterday, the Court pulled up the Delhi Government for not curing the defects in its petition. The Court warned that if the defects are not cured, then the petition will be dismissed, and accordingly, it adjourned the matter to today. During today's hearing, the Court asked why the petitioners as to why the Secretaries are not filing the affidavits. Post this, the Court said that the letter filed by the Himachal says that the water has already been released, meaning thereby they have no excess water. “The entire basis of your writ petition is that Himachal has excess water. If you are already releasing it, why was it not made known to the meeting of the Yamuna board on June 5th pursuant to our order….Why false statements are made before the Court? ”, said Justice Mishra. Moving forward, Advocate Shadan Farasat, representing the Delhi Government, orally told the Court about some of the measures taken. It included massive disconnections and usage of water for only essential purposes. “We are in a catch-22 situation with very little water. In so far as police is concerned, we will be more than happy to have the Police take action in this.” Senior Advocate AM Singhvi, appearing virtually for the GNCTD, also said as per the order passed by the Yamuna board in the year 2018, Delhi must get 1013 cusecs as per the decision. However, as against this 1013 cusecs, the actual water received is varying 800-900 cusecs with 900 cusecs received only twice. At this, Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for Haryana, chimed in and asserted that the submissions are beyond the scope of today's hearing. He said that incorrect statements are being made and this hearing is related to the compliance of the previous (June 06th) order. “The board is the expert body which decides on this issue and now they are trying to reopen it…suppressing...

If You Don't Act Against 'Tanker Mafia', We'll Ask Delhi Police : Supreme Court To Delhi Govt On Water Crisis

Gyanvi Khanna

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