Delhi sub-branch canal in bad shape, needs desilting: HC told

The Delhi High Court was today informed that the older Delhi sub-branch canal is in bad shape and requires repairs and de-silting as it has not been cleaned by Haryana for the past 35 years.
Haryana, in its defence, alleged that Delhi government has not paid it Rs 319 crore for the purpose of cleaning the older canal.
A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul, however, did not go into the issues and only noted that after installing ultrasonic water meters in the newer Munak canal, Delhi was getting water as stipulated in its earlier orders.
With this observation the court listed the matter for further hearing on September 11.

The court was informed about the bad shape of Munak canal by the amicus curiae who had visited the newer and older canals on several occasions.
The amicus in his report has highlighted several issues, including presence of silt and lack of lining at many places in the older canal, lack of security for the expensive water meters as well as requirement of barb wire along the Munak canal to prevent animals and humans from falling in.

The amicus also said there was no overflow or excessive discharge of water from the water treatment plants of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) which were receiving water from Munak.

He also said the water meters, costing Rs 20 lakh, were state of the art which measured the minute-to-minute flow of water and the readings were available on the website of Sommer, which had installed them.
The readings can be easily accessed by authorities of both states, the report said.
The metres have been installed pursuant to the court's direction to DJB to instal ultrasonic water meters in the Munak canal to measure and log the water supply so as to ascertain whether the court's directions were being complied with or not.
It had directed DJB to procure the meters at their cost and install them at the head of the Munak canal as well as the older Delhi sub-branch canal and any other places in Delhi as per the wisdom of the amicus.

The bench was hearing a PIL seeking commissioning of the 102-km Munak canal which was constructed by Haryana with financial assistance of around Rs 400 crore from the Delhi government on the condition that the national capital will be supplied 80 million gallons per day (MGD) water from it.