Groundwater depletion in Delhi "serious problem", says SC

Dubbing the issue of groundwater depletion in the national capital as a "serious problem", the Supreme Court today slammed the Centre, the Delhi government and their civic bodies for not taking any steps in this regard and said that Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq was smart as he had tried to shift the capital out of here.

The apex court, while observing that the authorities were just "passing the buck" and shying away from their responsibilities, also came down heavily on the Ministry of Water Resources for its affidavit saying a "school child" or a man on the street could also write an essay about the water problem in Delhi.

"Have you seen the NITI Aayog report? It says that there will be no ground water in Delhi. There is pollution. Perhaps you will shift the capital. From where will groundwater come," a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said.

"Muhammad bin Tughluq was smart and 400 years ago, he had shifted the capital (from Delhi)," the bench said.

Tughluq was the Sultan of Delhi from 1325 to 1351. He had shifted his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad (now in Maharashtra) in 1327, fearing invasions. However, rebellions and disease in various parts of his empire, including Bengal, had forced him to shift the capital back to Delhi in 1335.

The bench observed that in Delhi, there were serious problems of pollution, scarcity of water, drying up of river Yamuna and the authorities being unable to tackle them.

Referring to the authorities "passing the buck", the bench said "the person who is responsible, says I am not responsible for this. Everybody has to be blamed in this country, except the person in-charge". If this was the situation, then the court will recall its order passed in the matter, it observed.

Justice Lokur said "is he (official responsible for this) going to be accountable or will he sit like a monarch and say he should do this and he should do that."