Supreme Court raps river board over water sharing
The lawyer said there was clear-cut allocation of water and Haryana was supplying water, which was more than what was stipulated, to Delhi.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday slammed the Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB) for not doing their job pertaining to distribution of river water among the beneficiary states, asking it why should the courts do its work.
The apex court, which was hearing a matter rela-ting to river Yamuna wa-ter sharing between Delhi and Haryana, observed that the UYRB was supposed to do their job of regulating water supply to the barrages and asked the board to give its suggesti-ons on the issue by May 14.
UYRB was set up by the Centre in 1995, with one of its main functions being to regulate and supply water from all storages and barrages till the Okhla barrage in Delhi, in accordance with the agreements between the governments of the six basin sta-tes of UP, Himachal Prad-esh, Uttarakhand, Harya-na, Rajasthan and Delhi.
“Why is the Upper Yamuna River Board not doing their job? What are they doing,” a bench comprising Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta asked, adding, “the board is supposed to do its job. We do not know why they (UYRB) do not want to do their job? Why should we do their job?”
It directed the board to give its suggestions or take a decision in the matter related to water sharing between Haryana and Delhi and posted it for further hearing on May 16.
During the brief hearing, Haryana’s counsel told the bench that they were supplying Yamuna water to Delhi and would not alter the status quo.
The lawyer said there was clear-cut allocation of water and Haryana was supplying water, which was more than what was stipulated, to Delhi.
Delhi’s counsel said that the issue was about conti-nuation of the stream of drinking water to the national capital. The bench observed, “We will hear the matter on July 16. In the meantime, the status quo would continue.”