NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the Delhi Jal Board to frame a scheme within nine months for providing drinking water to the residents of Defence Services Enclave at Khanpur and Khirki villages in the national capital.
The high court observed that the “right to access to drinking water is fundamental to life” and it cannot be deprived to the citizens merely on the ground that it is an unauthorised colony.
Presently, the residents —mainly veterans, decorated officers, war-widows and armed forces personnel who were allotted land in 1970s — were meeting their water requirements via four tubewells as an interim arrangement.
The high court also asked the to constitute a committee to take a decision within four months with regard to regularising the Defence Services Enclave as was directed by the court earlier in another petition related to unauthorised constructions in Sainik Farms area of south Delhi.
Justice Jayant Nath issued the order on the plea by 54 persons who have been residing at the enclave for the last 50 years and were denied basic amenitieslike water and sewage connections as it was an unauthorised colony.
The high court observed that the petitioners were all “retired defence personnel who have devoted the most productive period of their lives defending the nation’s borders”.
(With PTI inputs)