The Supreme Court on Wednesday came down heavily on the Centre, the Delhi government and for not taking any steps to tackle the “serious problem” of groundwater depletion in the Capital.
The court perused a NITI Aayog report which said that many authorities were passing the buck and shying away from their responsibility.
“You are doing nothing to reduce water consumption, there is no plan for recharge and preservation of groundwater,” a Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta said.
It asked the Centre for immediate, intermediary and long-term measures to check the depletion of city’s groundwater.
‘Semi-critical’ situation
The apex court had on May 8 expressed grave concern over “over-exploitation” of groundwater in most parts of Delhi and asked the authorities to avert a crisis, saying the situation was “semi-critical”.
It had then perused a report filed by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) on the status of groundwater level in Delhi from May 2000 till May 2017 and said it indicated an “extremely sad state of affairs” and the situation was serious.
The groundwater issue had cropped up when the court was hearing a matter relating to the sealing of unauthorised constructions in Delhi.
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