Amit Shah forms committee to look into water pollution in Delhi

|HT|

Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday formed a committee to look into water pollution in Delhi that leads to contamination of the river Yamuna, officials aware of the matter said. The panel will be headed by Union home Secretary Ajay Bhalla.

The panel was formed after Delhi raised the issue of pollution, water scarcity and industrial and chemical effluent discharge from Haryana into the Yamuna as the key issues plaguing the national Capital at the 30th Northern Zonal Council meeting held in Jaipur on Saturday.

Lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia represented Delhi in the meeting along with the senior state officials.

The LG said that three drains with polluted water from Haryana fall into the Najafgarh drain in Delhi which pollutes the Yamuna. Sisodia placed data related to this before the inter-state council and said that currently, 5,000 cusecs water containing industrial effluents is discharged by Haryana into the Najafgarh drain. Sisodia said, “Almost the same amount of water is discharged in Najafgarh drain from different other drains of Delhi and in total about 10,000 cusecs of polluted water is getting discharged in Najafgarh drain. In this, the amount of polluted water coming from Haryana is very high, which if not stopped now, then Delhi and Uttar Pradesh will have to bear the consequences. Recently, the deaths of fishes in Najafgarh drain were reported because of the untreated polluted water from industries of Haryana that is being discharged here.”

Delhi presented two proposals in front of the council and said that either Haryana should treat the 5000 cusecs of polluted water from its industries and use it, or they should release only treated water in Najafgarh drain. LG Saxena suggested constructing a new drain where water coming from the drains of Haryana or any other state could be treated before being discharged in the Yamuna. “...home minister Amit Shah decided to form a committee on the request of the deputy chief minister,” a Delhi government statement said.

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