New Delhi: The Delhi government on Monday sought the deployment of Army engineers to carry out urgent repair of Haryana’s Munak Canal. It said the reservoir was damaged extensively by Jat protesters before the Army took control of it. The reservoir supplies 60 per cent of the capital’s total water requirement.
Seven water treatment plants in Delhi are lying idle due to disruption in raw water supply from the canal to Delhi, triggering water crisis in west, north, south-west, central and New Delhi areas.
A team of four DJB engineers was sent on Monday by the Delhi government to assess damage and give its report about the extent of damage and time required to repair it.
Earlier, the Delhi government said it was expecting to restore by late evening 25 per cent of water supply in the city.
After an emergency meeting, Mr Mishra said that 400 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water was released from Munak subcanal, adding that 25 per cent water supply in Delhi is expected to be restored by late evening.
Earlier, the Supreme Court on Monday rapped the Arvind Kejriwal government for rushing to court on water crisis in Delhi instead of resolving the issue with Haryana through talks.
The court’s provocation started when senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for Delhi government said there was a “serious water situation in Delhi and the minister (Kapil Mishra) is here in court.”
A bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Uday Lalit told Mr. Dhavan, “It’s an emergency situation. Instead of solving the issue, the minister is sitting in court.” The CJI said, “You find it easy to come to Supreme Court for getting an order instead of talking to Haryana and solving the problem. You rest in AC chambers and you want order from the court on a platter. These are matters of governance between Delhi and Haryana. Go to the affected place and render help and see that Delhi gets water.”
