Army guarding Munak canal, 1200 cusec water supplied to Delhi: Haryana tells SC

New Delhi: Haryana government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the army has taken control over all the three points from where water is supplied to Delhi and it has resumed supplying approximately 1200 cusec water to the National Capital. Taking note of the submission, a bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice UU Lalit disposed of the PIL, filed by Delhi Jal Board, that had sought a direction for ensuring uninterrupted supply of water which was hit owing to violent Jat quota stir in Haryana. The counsel for Haryana said that though Munak Regulator and barrages at Khubru and Mandora village in the state had been hit by the violence, but engineers and others are working to to get back to the earlier situation so that the water supply becomes normal. The repairing of damaged Munak canal, which supplies water to Dwarka, may take a fortnight, he said adding that efforts are on get it done as early as possible. [caption id=“attachment_2643468” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Security forces guard the Munak canal. AFP[/caption] The bench rejected the submission of Haryana that Delhi government be asked to contribute in the repair work. “Why should Delhi pay for it. Your people damaged them then you tell, who will pay for them?,” the bench, which later asked both governments to co-operarate and resolve, said during the hearing. The bench, while disposing of DJB’s PIL, said that it was not an “adversarial” litigation and asked Haryana government to take efforts to ensure resumption of normal and usual supply of water to Delhi. “We hope and trust that the governments of Haryana and NCT of Delhi co-operate with each other and make a joint effort to ensure supply of water to Delhi at the earliest to avoid any inconvenience to the people living in Delhi. We are indeed happy to note that there is no adversarial element in this litigation as both the governments appear to be willing to cooperate with each other in every respect,” it said. Earlier, the court had asked the Centre to take “steps to ensure that the proper security is provided to the three barrages at Munak, Mandora and Khubru to prevent any further mischief affecting supply of water to Delhi at the three points.” Earlier, the apex court had sought the status report from Haryana on the plea of Delhi that the water supply be resumed. The bench, which was initially reluctant to take up the plea of Delhi, had rapped AAP-led Delhi government for moving approaching the apex court instead of resolving the issue at government-to-government level. “You people instead of solving the problem at government- to-government level are moving Supreme Court. You want order from the Supreme Court. You want everything on a platter. “You ministers are sitting in the court instead of going to the field. You rest in AC chambers and you want order from the court,” the bench had said while referring to the presence of Delhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra inside the court. However, after repeated persistence from senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan, appearing for Delhi government, the bench had asked the Haryana government to make the necessary arrangement for resumption of water supply in the Capital. The AAP government had moved the apex court for urgent hearing on its plea seeking Centre’s intervention for uninterrupted supply of water from Munak Canal in Haryana, which is allegedly under siege of the Jat agitators demanding reservation. PTI