New Delhi: Delhi contributes 79 per cent of pollution load in the Yamuna river, Haryana government told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday. Citing a November 2006 report of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Haryana told a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V. Kameswar Rao that Delhi contributes 79 per cent of pollution load in the river while pollution load of Haryana cities of Panipat and Sonipat is shown to be five per cent. Haryana government said,
Yamuna marginally get polluted in Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand before the water is received at Tajewala.
In the last hearing, Delhi government told the court that the water meant for the city was polluted and Delhi was not getting clean water because Haryana was not allowing clean water to flow into the Yamuna.
The Delhi government has also said that national capital is facing scarcity of clean water due to Haryana which is obstructing the flow of the river.
On Tuesday, the Haryana government told the court that direction has been issued to remove the ‘bundhs’.
Haryana also told the court it keeps releasing the nearly 1050 cusecs water from Munak canal for Delhi. The Haryana government said in a reply,
It is the population of Haryana only, which suffers the vagaries of a lean season and not Delhi as the water works in Haryana would be partly filled/unfilled for some duration, therefore Delhi should take urgent measures to reduce their losses which are alleged to be 10 per cent in treatment and 30 per cent post treatment. Some treatment and post-treatment loses are inevitable, but losses to the extent as projected by DJB are unpardonable and can be termed as criminal wastage of precious raw water.
The bench listed the matter for further hearing on March 13.
The court was hearing a plea, filed by advocate S.B. Tripathi, who has sought direction to the DJB to provide 100 per cent sewage facility in the entire city and the Central government to provide financial assistance to the DJB for the work.
The plea said that in 2016, the DJB had told the court that only 55 per cent of the Delhi population was covered with sewage facility and there was no sewage facility available to the remaining 45 per cent.
Tripathi has said as 330 cusecs of water was supplied by Haryana through a ‘kutcha’ canal, 50 per cent of water was being lost due to seepage and Delhi got only about 170-180 cusec water per day.
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
