Meet focuses on water shortage (HT)
sareendwarka
In a recent celebration of the 14th foundation day of the federation of the CGHS of Dwarka, many political leaders, public representatives from the area and office bearers gathered. The topic of shortage of water in Dwarka was discussed at the event. South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri, MLA’s Dharam Dev Solanki (Palam), Sat Prakash Rana (Bijwasan) and South Delhi Municipal Corporation councilor (Palam) Seema Pandit were present.
Conspicuous by their absence were west Delhi MP Parvesh Verma under which most of Dwarka lies and Matiala MLA, Rajesh Gehlot under whose assembly constituency most of Dwarka sector falls. Balvidner Kumar, vice-chairman DDA also did not turn up. National Human Rights Commission was represented by a senior official.
During the meeting, speakers spoke about the DJB getting water or the Munak canal. Bidhuri said the failure of getting Munak canal water from Haryana was due to political reasons.
He said he has started work on the issue adding that he would also soon write to NHRC on the issue. He promised to bring Munak canal water to Dwarka by April 2015. Dharam Dev Solanki also gave his full support to the federation in the fight to get water.
Besides water, Sat Prakash Rana, MLA, Bijwasan stressed on the problem of traffic snarls in and around Dwarka. He pointed out with the project of connecting NH-1 with NH-8 on the anvil the amount of traffic passing through Dwarka will increase much more. He warned that if immediate steps are not taken the traffic problem in Dwarka, which has many projects to come up and as of now has only 60% occupancy, is going to be a major issue.
Apart from water shortage, the NHRC representative said lack of hospitals, walkways and well maintained pavements, missing manhole covers, poor condition of nigh shelters and overcrowding gover nment schools as other important issues were affecting Dwarka.
Some federation representatives also spoke about getting Munak water, or asking DJB or DDA to provide piped water rather than through tankers. “We have been taking up different issues affecting Dwarka for the past 14 years. We have had many successes so far. Here also we have had successes like the recent announcement that DJB would take over water supply in Dwarka from DDA,” says Sudha Sinha, general secretary of the federation.
An audio-video presentation on the issues of Dwarka and the federations work on them was screened. Some participants complained that they did not get the opportunity to ask questions from the panelists.
Surprisingly, none of the speakers, including CGHS members spoke about the water harvesting by CGHS and reviving of old water bodies in Dwarka area as a possible and long lasting solution to the water needs of Dwarka. Recently, an old step well has been discovered in Dwarka. It is proof that earlier underground water was at a higher level. That should be our focus now,” says Sonia Manocha, a Dwarka resident.