Submit minutes of meetings, NGT directs AAP govt

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal has directed the AAP government to submit minutes of the meetings held for preparing a district-wise schedule of the permission granted to the DMRC for extracting groundwater. A bench headed by Raghuvendra S Rathore directed the Delhi government to include Deputy Commissioners of every district, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) for discussions and asked it to expedite the meetings.

"Counsel for the Delhi government has submitted that meetings in respect of all the districts except South Delhi had been held and he will be submitting the records of the meetings. As regards the district of South Delhi, it has been informed that meeting is fixed for April 20, 2018. The counsel for NCT of Delhi may place minutes of the meetings on record and give copies to all the concerned," the bench said.

The matter has been posted for next hearing on May 3. The tribunal had earlier warned of halting the capitals metro services as it slammed the DMRC for not complying with its order on the extraction of groundwater without permission. It had directed the Environment Ministry, CGWA, DMRC, Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and counsel for the applicant, to jointly find out how many stations were withdrawing groundwater without proper permission.

DJB had earlier told the tribunal that it has not granted permission to the DMRC for extraction of groundwater but the metro company has installed 276 borewells across the national capital for which it has no permission.

The NGT was hearing a plea filed by a Delhi resident alleging that DMRC was extracting groundwater instead of using wastewater to wash its trains, resulting in depletion of the water table.