No water source of our own to provide it for free to commuters, DMRC tells HC

DMRC has told the Delhi High Court that it cannot provide free drinking water to commuters as it has no source of water of its own and is dependant on other civic agencies for the supply.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) also told the court that it "purchases portable drinking water" from third party vendors for its staff members and would provide it free to commuters if paid drinking water was not available at a particular metro station.

The submissions were made by Delhi Metro in an affidavit placed before a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao. On August 20 it had asked DMRC to justify not providing drinking water commuters if metro services in Kochi, Jaipur, Lucknow and other cities were making it available.

DMRC also told the court that it has been regularly interacting with its commuters for feedback on its services and none have complained regarding lack of free drinking water.

It also said in its affidavit that drinking water for Rs 2 per glass was available at almost all metro stations and where it is not available, commuters can ask the staff for water which will be provided free of cost.

Signs informing commuters about this would be put in place, it told the court which listed the matter for further hearing on January 21.

The bench was hearing Kush Kalra's appeal, filed through advocate Kush Sharma, against a single judge's order that a commuter on the metro does not have a right to free drinking water.

The single judge had said that a person has a right to drinking water, but not for free.

The order had come on a plea by Kalra, a lawyer, who had sought directions to DMRC to provide free drinking water and toilets at its stations.

In his plea, he had also alleged that there was lack of dustbins inside several metro stations.

The DMRC had later installed transparent dustbins for organic and inorganic waste in its stations.

The high court had earlier this year pulled up the Delhi Metro for not providing free drinking water or toilet facilities to commuters inside the stations, asking whether it has lost "a sense of human problems".

"You go anywhere in the world, there are toilets in the metro stations. In London, the volume of traffic is not as much as we have," it had said.