Dispute over Yamuna: Delhi govt in SC disputes agreement reached with Haryana on river water

The Delhi government on Monday disputed in the Supreme Court the correctness of an agreement reached with the Haryana government over daily release of Yamuna water for the national capital.

The Aam Aadmi Party government said that the minutes of the meeting held on March 28, do no reflect the correct state of affairs.

A bench of justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta asked the secretary of Water Resource, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation to inform the counsel for the Centre about the correct state of affairs of the minutes of the meeting.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan appearing for the Haryana government said that under the agreement reached, the Delhi government had to make a formal request for release of water to the national capital.

Senior advocate Parag Tripathi appearing for Delhi Jal Board said that he has no issue of making a formal request but the water has to be release as the Delhi government is unable to meet the demand of drinking water.

He said that the minutes of the meeting submitted by Haryana to the court do not reflect the correct position.  The bench then asked Tripathi to specify what is the correct position on the minutes but he said he has no specific instruction on the issue and has to ascertain the factual position.   Divan said that if the formal request is made then it will be considered as soon as it is received but added that it was agreed between the parties that Delhi government will withdraw the cases filed at National Green Tribunal and the Delhi High Court.

The bench then posted the matter for further hearing on April 19.

The meeting held on March 28, on the issue of short supply of Yamuna water to Delhi was chaired by Union Ministry of Water secretary U P Singh and was attended by the chief secretaries of Haryana and Delhi.

On April 2, the Delhi government had informed the apex court that it was negotiating with Haryana for the release of 450 cusecs of water of the Yamuna river per day for the national capital.

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) had told the court that Haryana had released some amount of water and requested that the court might not need to pass any order as both Delhi and Haryana governments were in negotiation to resolve the crisis.

The apex court was hearing a plea filed by the DJB alleging that Haryana had reduced by one-third the supply of Yamuna water to the national capital, leading to a grave water crisis here.

The DJB contended in its plea that Haryana was supplying Delhi only 330 cusecs of water per day as against 450 cusecs per day which was agreed upon between the state and the Union Territory.

It has claimed that due to the present curtailment in water supply to the Wazirabad reservoir, the plant is running at reduced capacity leading to "grave water crisis" in the city.

The DJB had said the situation would "escalate" as the temperature rises with the onset of summer and the demand for drinking water shoots up.

It has sought directions from the apex court to the Haryana government to supply the full 450 cusec of water per day continuously and daily to the Wazirabad reservoir.

The Delhi High Court had also recently told the Haryana government that it has to stick to its 2014 direction specifying the amount of water to be released to Delhi every day.