Delhi High Court pulls up civic authorities for failure to address capital's sewage, drainage woes

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday pulled up civic authorities in the capital for their failure to address the issue of flooding and waterlogging in certain areas of the city [Court on its own motion v. Union of India and Ors]..A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora remarked that the drainage system has totally collapsed in Delhi, the sewage lines are broken and once the rainwater gets mixed with sewage system, it leads to reverse flow.“This is absolutely pathetic. These agencies will have to wake up. Every monsoon you see the famous photograph of the Minto Road with the bus drowned there. People cannot even step out of their homes to reach the court. This is happening in the New Delhi area. Some of us were complaining that we got fishes in our homes even though we are vegetarian,” the Bench remarked.The ACJ stressed that there must be a common plan and one agency to look after the city’s sewage and drainage system.“You have multiple agencies but none of them are working. This sewage system needs to be looked after by one agency…Look at what your sweepers are doing. They dump all the waste in sewage pipes. These pipes then get choked and then you hire the contractors to clean the sewage pipes.”.ACJ Manmohan referred to a house on the Purana Qila Road which gets flooded every year. He said that even last year, there was six feet high water and even a snake entered the premises.“This is the callousness of the authorities in the New Delhi area. What can we say about the outer areas of the city?”.The Court made the stern remarks while dealing with a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) related to waterlogging and flood-like situation in Delhi.The PIL was initiated in 2018 based on several media reports..During the hearing today, counsel appearing for the Public Works Department (PWD) asked the Bench to pass directions to constitute a committee to deal with the matter.However, the Court said it will not do so at this stage, as the authorities will then argue that because the High Court is dealing with the issue, they cannot interfere.The Court, however, asked the counsel to figure out how many government agencies are involved in dealing with the drainage and sewage system, after which it would pass orders.“You take the sample from the High Court to Yamuna. You will find out that nearly a dozen agencies are involved. You tell us which are these agencies and then we will see what orders are to be passed,” the Bench remarked..It then adjourned the matter to January 16.