Summary:
The plea has claimed that the wastage can be brought down to 5 per cent by concrete lining.The bench had earlier asked the Haryana government to ensure that it releases the entire quantity of water required as per the undertaking given to the court.Haryana has to release 719 cusecs of water per day into Munak canal and 330 cusecs per day in DSBC, according to the undertaking and earlier court orders. NEW DELHI: The Haryana government told the Delhi high court on Monday that it has completed the repair of the old Delhi Sub Branch Canal (DSBC) which carries water to the national capital.The counsel for Haryana government filed a status report and informed the bench of chief justice Rajendra Menon and justice V K Rao that the water supply has resumed.This submission was contested by Delhi Jal Board 's (DJB) counsel Sumeet Pushkarna who said the water supply was deficient and it has not been resumed properly.The court asked the DJB to file its reply to the Haryana government's status report and listed the matter for further hearing on January 14.The court had earlier asked the state government about the status of the repair works on the old DSBC.The direction had come after petitioner advocate S B Tripathi told the court that the repairs were getting delayed affecting the water supply to Delhi, especially in the sub-city of Dwarka.Haryana had on May 24 this year told the court that it has floated tenders for the repair works and that they would be opened in June and the work was expected to be completed in four months thereafter.Prior to that, the court had on May 10 pulled up the Haryana government for not issuing any tender for repairing the old sub-branch canal, despite payment of Rs 28.16 crore to it by the DJB for the work.The court was also displeased with the fact that Haryana had till then not encashed the cheques sent to it in March.The high court on March 13 had directed Haryana and Delhi governments to take steps to immediately carry out repair works on DSBC, saying any delay would lead to wastage of water really needed by the national capital.The court was hearing a PIL moved by Tripathi who has said that the population in Delhi was increasing each day, while the raw water available stayed the same or even decreasing.Tripathi has also filed an application for concrete lining of DSBC, similar to the other, Munak canal, claiming that due to seepage in the older canal, 50 per cent of the 330 cusec water released into it by Haryana is lost..