Water crisis: Delhi government is criticized by the Supreme Court for doing nothing to stop the water tanker mafia
While the Delhi government claims it has not received any excess water, the Himachal Pradesh government informs the Supreme Court that 137 cubic seconds of unused water were already flowing to Delhi.
The national capital of India, which is experiencing a severe water crisis during the height of summer, came under fire from the Supreme Court on Wednesday for the Delhi government’s lack of action against the water tanker mafia.
Senior counsel AM Singhvi, who represented the Delhi government, was informed by a bench led by Justice PK Mishra, “If you are not taking action, then we will hand it over to Delhi Police to take action against the tanker mafia.”
“There is a lot of spilling…There’s the tanker mafia. People are in distress. This is evident across all platforms. Nothing is being done by you. It’s an issue that comes up every summer. What steps have you taken to stop wasting water?… Have you acted or filed formal complaints against the tanker mafia? Water is obtained by tanker mafias, and pipelines are drying up,” the Bench claimed.
Earlier, Solicitor General Tushar Menta had noted that only 47.65% of Delhi’s water supply was available to residents, with 52.35 percent either going to waste or being stolen by the water tanker mafia.
The hearing was postponed until Thursday after the Bench ordered the Delhi government to submit an affidavit outlining the steps the Delhi Jal Board took to prevent water wastage and theft in the nation’s capital.
The Bench was confused to see that Delhi Water Minister Atishi, rather than DJB staff, as was customary, had submitted affidavits in support of the Delhi government’s case.
It’s interesting to note that the Himachal Pradesh government informed the Bench that Delhi was already receiving 137 cusec of water flow.
“On June 5, why didn’t you notify the Upper Yamuna River Board? Why are people coming before this court with fraudulent claims?… The Himachal Pradesh Advocate General Anup Kumar Rattan was informed by the Bench that “we will immediately send your officer to jail for contempt.”
The Bench questioned, “If water is coming from Himachal Pradesh then where is the water going in Delhi?” as the Himachal Pradesh government claimed that 137 cusec of water was already flowing to Delhi and the NCT government insisted that it did not.
On behalf of the Delhi government, Singhvi and lawyer Shadan Farasat submitted that the tankers belonged to the Delhi Jal Board. They promised to produce an affidavit outlining the measures taken to address water theft from the Delhi government.
Senior Additional Advocate General Lokesh Sinhal and Senior Advocate Shyam Divan represented the Haryana government, which claimed the court was being mislead and that there was no accessible unutilized water with Himachal Pradesh.
In order to determine how much water HP is using, the Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB) informed the Bench that “complete information has not been supplied.” The Board stated that information on the withdrawal point’s location, latitude and longitude, authorized or allowed discharge of the scheme, water used by HP, and excess water released for Delhi must be provided by Himachal Pradesh.
The UYRB stated that in order for the Board to estimate the unutilized portion of the state of HP that they would like to share with the NCT of Delhi and pass through the state of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh must provide the information necessary to determine their utilized share (of water).
On Monday, the Supreme Court expressed significant disapproval of the Delhi administration for neglecting to rectify specific errors in their plea, which asked for the Haryana government to be instructed to transfer excess water supplied by Himachal Pradesh in order to address the water crisis in the nation’s capital.
This court cannot be taken for granted. Allow the Supreme Court Registry office to confirm that the faults have been corrected; if not, allow the petition to be dismissed. It would be rejected,” Singhvi was informed by the Bench.
“Defects were identified last week, but they haven’t been fixed yet. When Divan brought up the fact that the state could not submit its documents since the Delhi government’s appeal still contained errors, the statement read, “Mr. Singhvi will not remove the defects.”
