Northern Zonal Council meeting: Delhi raises issues of pollution, water scarcity

New Delhi [India] July 9 : At the 30th Northern Zonal Council meeting held in Jaipur on Saturday, the Delhi government raised the issue of pollution, water scarcity and industrial and chemical effluent discharge from Haryana in the Yamuna.
To represent Delhi, Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena and Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia attended this meeting along with the officials, said a press release on Saturday.
Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, in his opening speech, also raised the issue of polluted water being released by Haryana. He said that three drains with polluted water from Haryana get discharged into the Najafgarh drain in Delhi and are polluting it. This is further polluting the Yamuna. Emphasizing this issue, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia placed the data related to this before the inter-state council and told that at present 5,000 cusecs of water containing industrial and chemical effluents are discharged by Haryana in the Najafgarh drain.
Sisodia said, "Almost the same amount of water is discharged in Najafgarh drain from different other drains of Delhi and in total, about 10,000 cusecs of polluted water are getting discharged in Najafgarh drain. In this, the amount of polluted water coming from Haryana is very high, which if not stopped now, then Delhi and Uttar Pradesh will have to bear the consequences of this."
"Recently, the deaths of fishes in Najafgarh drain were reported because of the untreated polluted water from industries of Haryana that is being discharged here. Delhi government has started cleaning and maintenance of Najafgarh drain on a war footing. All the polluted water that is discharged in the drain will be treated at the sewage treatment plant first. But until Haryana will not stop discharging the chemical-laden polluted water from its industries in the Najafgarh drain, complete cleaning of the drain is not possible,'' he added.
Sisodia presented the two proposals in front of the council and said that either Haryana should treat this 5000 cusec of chemical water from its industries and use it or they should release the treated water in the Najafgarh drain. The Deputy Chief Minister supported the proposal of the Lieutenant Governor of constructing a new similar drain where water coming from drains of Haryana or any other state could be treated before being discharged into the Yamuna.
The issue was taken seriously by the Central Government and Home Minister Amit Shah decided to form a committee under the chairmanship of Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla and directed to resolve the issue at the earliest.
Apart from this, Sisodia also raised the issue of pollution in the state. He said that to control the pollution in the national capital, the Delhi government has been working in mission mode. It is working rigorously on converting public transport into CNG and E-transport and promoting the idea of converting private vehicles into e-vehicles. But similar initiatives are needed on the part of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Sisodia demanded expediting the construction of 'Renuka Dam' and urged that the government should decide the amount of water to be given to Delhi now so that this can be included in the state's water policies.
Commenting on the demand, Home Minister Amit Shah said, ''We understand the requirement of water in Delhi, but it is not possible to decide the same at this time.'' On this, the Deputy Chief Minister quoted the text from the MoU between 6 states ''As Delhi government is investing money in this project, so the distribution of electricity will be according to the conditions of the coming time. But Delhi will be given water on priority basis out of the amount of water left in it.''
It is to be noted that this MoU has the signatures of the six chief ministers and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. Sisodia urged the council that Delhi should get the water on a priority basis from day one as soon as the dam gets functional. Home Minister Amit Shah agreed with the Deputy Chief Minister and said that a committee will be constituted to decide the amount of water to be given to Delhi.
Noteworthy, Delhi Government has given Rs 214 crore as a partnership in the construction of Renuka Dam. This has been done because according to the agreement between states for this dam, Delhi will get the water from this dam on a priority basis. Apart from this, the Delhi government is also helping in the construction of the Lakhwar Dam and Kissau Dam being built in Uttarakhand.
Manish Sisodia, in the meeting of the Northern Zonal Council, also emphasized that the construction work of these three projects is very slow or has not even started yet, they should be continuously monitored. It is needed and if possible, it should be continuously monitored by including it in the e-Pragati scheme.