Submit minutes of meetings with DMRC, NGT tells government

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal (NGT)  has directed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to submit the minutes of the meetings held for preparing district-wise schedule of the permission granted to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for extracting groundwater.

A bench, headed by Raghuvendra S. Rathore, directed the government to include deputy commissioners of every district, DMRC and Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) for discussions and asked it to expedite the meetings.

The bench said: “The counsel for the Delhi government has submitted that meetings in respect of all the districts, except South Delhi, had been held and he will be submitting the records of the meetings. As regards the district of South Delhi, it has been informed that the meeting is fixed for April 20. The counsel for NCT of Delhi may place the minutes of the meetings on record and give copies to all the concerned.” The matter has been posted for  May 3.

The green panel had earlier warned of halting the city’s metro services as it slammed the DMRC for not complying with its order not to extract groundwater without permission.

It had directed the environment ministry, CGWA, DMRC, Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and advocate Kush Sharma, counsel for the applicant, to jointly find out how many stations were extracting groundwater without proper permission.     

The DJB had earlier told the tribunal that it hasn’t granted permission to the DMRC for extraction of ground water, but it has installed 276 borewells across Delhi for which it has no permission.

The NGT was hearing a plea filed by Delhi resident Kush Kalra alleging that DMRC was extracting groundwater instead of using waste water to wash its trains, resulting in depletion of the water table.

It had contended that if any individual installed a borewell without permission in his house, the authorities seal it in no time and slap a fine, but the DMRC has installed 276 borewells right under the nose of authorities but no action has been taken till date.

Referring to a RTI reply, the plea had said DMRC’s water requirement was met through borewells and Board’s water connections. It also said that in order to draw water from borewells, 3 to 5 HP pumps were used.  

The RTI said : “No bottled water is used, groundwater after treatment as per requirement is used for train washing...Borewells have been provided in the depots from where water is sourced. Around 400 to 500 litres of groundwater is used for washing one metro train. The water, after washing of metro train, is sent to Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP). The treated water is then used for gardening and the excess sent to drains.”Another RTI response received from DJB said no permission had been granted to DMRC for digging borewells.