HARYANA MOVES HIGH COURT, SAYS DJB IS WASTING WATER
SK MALIK
Arun Banerjee
Depts to use treated sewage for non-potable purposes
Neha Lalchandani,TNN | Apr 25, 2015, 12.37 AM IST
NEW DELHI: The government has now made it compulsory for departments
engaged in horticulture activities or, in case of washing of DTC vehicles, to
use treated effluent. The decision was taken by deputy chief minister Manish
Sisodia who has asked Delhi Jal Board to formulate a plan to ensure that no
drinking quality water is used for non-potable purposes.
The government has written to the Central Ground Water Board to ban tubewells
in parks whose sole purpose is to provide water for irrigation. It has also
asked all departments concerned to arrange for tankers that will take treated
effluent from DJB's plant and transport to area of use.
DJB has 400 million gallons per day (MGD) of treated sewage available for
horticulture. The department has been trying to promote its use for non-potable
purposes for several months and has written numerous letters to the agencies to
purchase this effluent from it. However, even now, only 142 MGD is being
utilized.
Departments like DDA, PWD, the municipal corporations and DTC have been relying
largely on piped water or groundwater for horticulture. DJB has offered them
treated effluent at Rs 7 per kl. In fact, the AAP-led government had passed a
similar order during its previous tenure but there was very little action on
it.
"So far there has been no policy to push this issue. Delhi does not have a
shortage of water but a lot of it is being wasted on activities like watering
in parks, washing buses etc. This has to be stopped immediately. On Friday, the
government said that it will no longer tolerate misuse of potable water. In
fact, treated effluent is very good for plants because it has a high level of
potassium and sodium. By using treated effluent around 80-100 MGD of
groundwater will also be saved, making this an environmentally sound practice.
The parameters for treatment have also been established so there is no issues
like its quality or smell," said sources.
Experts calculated that at the rate of Rs 7 per kl, DJB would also stand to
earn more than Rs 50 crore per annum if even 100 MGD was purchased for
non-potable uses.
For AAP, which has been blaming Delhi Police for the incident, it was a day of
expressing regret. Senior party member Ashutosh shed copious tears during a
news debate while speaking to the daughter of deceased farmer Gajendra Singh.
When 17-year-old Megha asked him why his party continued with their rally when
her father committed suicide, Ashutosh broke into a sob, saying: "I am
your sinner. I was present on the stage and still could not save him. We have
not slept in the night. There is a lot of pain. The politics that is happening
over the issue is sad. The people of the country should understand they will
get nothing from this type of politics. I request Vasundhara Raje, Rajasthan
CM, to listen to the plea of Gajendra and his family and not do politics. His
daughter is saying that there should be no politics over this. I hope BJP and
Congress will stop doing politics over this and understand the loss of the
family."
Meanwhile, Kejriwal, who till now had not spoken on the issue for which his
party has been receiving tremendous flak, said that the incident had shocked
him since he had not experienced anything like this before.
"The tree (from which Gajendra hanged himself) was some distance from the
stage. In front of us the media was standing on a platform. There were banners
on the tree and because of the foliage we could not see the man. A couple of
volunteers came running to us to say that there was something happening on the
tree. We could not have announced anything from the stage at that time since
everyone would have run towards the tree. We saw something on TV cameras. Then
we got to know that a man was trying to commit suicide but it was not confirmed
so again we could not announce anything. We just kept saying that the police
should bring him down," he said.
Kejriwal, who on the day of the incident blamed the police for it, said that
they probably did not know that Gajendra was going to commit suicide.
"Guest teachers, police and our volunteers were standing below the tree
and looking up. In all honesty I don't think they even thought that someone
would commit suicide. At this time we should not trying to blame anyone. If the
police knew that he was trying to kill himself,I believe that 80-90% of them
would be kind people who would not have allowed it to happen. I had to give a
speech for 30 minutes but tried to finish it off in 10-15 minutes," he
said.
He also apologized for having continued the rally, saying: "I believe that
my fault is that I should not have spoken at that time. If because of that I
hurt someone's feelings, I apologize. But what has been happening for the past
two to three days is not right. The police and magistrate are carrying out
investigations. Hang the person responsible for this but farmers are committing
suicide and the discussion should be about them," he said.
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