NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of the controversy over supply of alleged unsafe drinking water in the national capital and asked the Delhi government and the Centre to come back with relevant data.
Slamming the Centre and state government for the blame game on water and air pollution in Delhi, the court directed them to submit a report within six weeks stating how they plan to tackle garbage disposal, air and water pollution.
“We are shocked that water is polluted in Delhi and this blame game is going on,” a bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta observed.
Reacting on the development, Dinesh Mohaniya, Vice Chairman Delhi Jal Board (DJB) said, “We will comply with all the directions of the Supreme Court, Delhi Jal Board is collecting water samples on daily basis. Will submit them to the court but there is question as to why there is only concern about air and water of Delhi; Uttar Pradesh has so many polluted cities,”
“The problem of governance, if any, cannot come in the way in dealing with such matters,” the bench said and asked the concerned authorities to sit and work out together to find out how to provide safe drinking water to the people.
The top court also directed the Delhi and the central government to finalise an action plan within 10 days for setting up air-purifying towers in different parts of the national capital.
According to the report released by Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on November 16, water in the national capital was most unsafe among 21 major Indian cities.
However, CM Kejriwal claimed that 98.5 per cent of the 1.5 lakh water samples tested by Delhi Jal Board between January and October this year were found to be safe.