The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Chief Secretaries of Delhi and Haryana, and the Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources to hold a meeting immediately to discuss and sort out issues related to supply of Yamuna water to the Capital.
The apex court said this after the Delhi and Haryana Chief Secretaries, who were both present in court during the hearing, raised some issues regarding minutes of the meeting held earlier between them.
While Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash told a Bench comprising Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta that they had not agreed on certain aspects at the last meeting, his Haryana counterpart said the minutes of the last meeting were “correctly recorded”.
“What should be done now? Do we need to have CCTV cameras installed to see what they have said [in the meeting]? All of them are senior officers,” the Bench observed.
However, Additional Solicitor General A.N.S. Nadkarni, appearing for the Centre, said both Delhi and Haryana should sort it out and they should have a fresh meeting to deliberate on the issue.
Mr. Prakash told the Bench that they had not agreed on the aspect of withdrawal of cases filed by the Delhi government against Haryana in this regard in the last meeting but it was recorded in the minutes that this issue was agreed upon.
“You tell us the solution. This cannot go on like this,” the Bench observed.
Haryana Chief Secretary D.S. Dhesi said they had started releasing water to Delhi from April 2 itself.
The counsel for Haryana said water was being released as per the agreement and claimed that Delhi wanted to get Haryana’s share of water also.
“In the garb of a judicial order, they [Delhi] want Haryana to part with its share of water,” the counsel claimed.
“What Delhi is asking is not a favour from Haryana. It is as per the Supreme Court’s order. We had written to Haryana. They started releasing water but then they stopped it. We want continuous supply of water,” Mr. Prakash said.
Delhi’s counsel said there was a shortfall of 120 cusecs of water from the Yamuna daily for the Capital. However, the Bench asked Delhi what it had done to remove garbage and junk lying in the river.
“What about the junk lying there? The water stinks. Garbage is there. What is this going on? Yamuna was supposed to be a goddess,” the Bench observed.
When Mr. Nadkarni said both the Chief Secretaries and the Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources should meet to resolve the issue, the Bench said, “The meeting should be held in a cordial atmosphere.”
The Bench asked them to hold meeting on the issue urgently and posted the matter for hearing on April 27.
