The Delhi High Court on Monday sought the city government’s stand on a petition opposing its scheme to provide 20,000 litres of free water per month to each household in the Capital.
Notices issued
A Bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice C. Hari Shankar issued notices to the Delhi government and its water distributing authority, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), seeking their responses to the plea by November 19, the next date of hearing.
The petitioners, advocates Tajinder Singh and Anurag Chauhan, have said in their plea that water, being a fast-depleting resource, ought not to be given away free in such huge quantities, especially when several areas in the city do not have water pipelines and depend on tankers for supply.
They have sought setting aside of the Delhi government’s February 25, 2015, decision to provide 20,000 litres of free water to each household in the city and the subsequent DJB order notifying it on February 27, 2015. The petition has alleged that “the scheme was launched without conducting proper research with regard to production, recycling and supplying of water in Delhi”.
