NEW DELHI: Monday's meeting between the
chief ministers of Delhi and Haryana brought about some relief for Delhi. By
Tuesday morning, levels in the Wazirabad pond went up and full production
started at the Wazirabad and Chandrawal plants that were earlier down by 40 million
gallons per day. Upper Yamuna River Board also started monitoring the release
and intake by the two states.
Meanwhile, after much water has already passed under the bridge and things are in fact looking up, the main opposition party BJP has suddenly put in a demand for a white paper on water shortage in the capital. Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta demanded that a judicial enquiry into the city's water shortage problem should also be launched. The party has called for a demonstration at Jantar Mantar on June 22, after which party workers will march to the PM's residence.
Gupta said: "The government claims that it supplies 200 litres of water to every person in Delhi. The reality is that the people are not getting even 20 litres of water. There are many areas in Delhi where the people have not been supplied even a drop of water for the last three months. These are the areas inhabited by poor people. They are compelled to purchase water at 20 times higher rates from the water mafia."
Production at the Haiderpur plants that had dropped in the last week of May, continued to remain about 15 MGD below capacity although officials were hopeful that full supply to this plant would also resume shortly. A DJB official said that by 8am, production at Wazirabad had picked up, indicating that Haryana would have started releasing water on Monday night. "All the pumps are working now and production is optimal. Only Haiderpur remains affected. NDMC is still having to regulate water supply in its areas," said the official.
Haryana, meanwhile, continued to iterate that it had not increased supply to Delhi. "We stick by our earlier stand. Haryana has not changed the amount of water it has been releasing to Delhi. At present we are releasing the same amount of water that we had been releasing before Delhi's shortage problem started. We have not increased supply since Monday," said a senior Haryana government official. Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit added that the inspection of releases at Haryana and intake at Delhi by the UYRB had started and officials of both states, including representatives of the ministry of water resources, would go along with the UYRB team.
"There has been a mismatch of understanding and it is important that we resolve the issue as soon as possible. For that, the UYRB committee that was set up on Monday is extremely crucial," she said.
Meanwhile, after much water has already passed under the bridge and things are in fact looking up, the main opposition party BJP has suddenly put in a demand for a white paper on water shortage in the capital. Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta demanded that a judicial enquiry into the city's water shortage problem should also be launched. The party has called for a demonstration at Jantar Mantar on June 22, after which party workers will march to the PM's residence.
Gupta said: "The government claims that it supplies 200 litres of water to every person in Delhi. The reality is that the people are not getting even 20 litres of water. There are many areas in Delhi where the people have not been supplied even a drop of water for the last three months. These are the areas inhabited by poor people. They are compelled to purchase water at 20 times higher rates from the water mafia."
Production at the Haiderpur plants that had dropped in the last week of May, continued to remain about 15 MGD below capacity although officials were hopeful that full supply to this plant would also resume shortly. A DJB official said that by 8am, production at Wazirabad had picked up, indicating that Haryana would have started releasing water on Monday night. "All the pumps are working now and production is optimal. Only Haiderpur remains affected. NDMC is still having to regulate water supply in its areas," said the official.
Haryana, meanwhile, continued to iterate that it had not increased supply to Delhi. "We stick by our earlier stand. Haryana has not changed the amount of water it has been releasing to Delhi. At present we are releasing the same amount of water that we had been releasing before Delhi's shortage problem started. We have not increased supply since Monday," said a senior Haryana government official. Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit added that the inspection of releases at Haryana and intake at Delhi by the UYRB had started and officials of both states, including representatives of the ministry of water resources, would go along with the UYRB team.
"There has been a mismatch of understanding and it is important that we resolve the issue as soon as possible. For that, the UYRB committee that was set up on Monday is extremely crucial," she said.
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