Munak branch not cleaned in 35 years: Amicus

The report stated that filth and garbage — puja material, plastic bags, etc., — were disposed into the Delhi side of the canal.

In a report on the condition of Munak Canal filed before the Delhi High Court on Thursday, amicus curiae in the case Rakesh K Khanna said the Delhi branch of the canal had “not been cleaned for the last 35 years”.

The report stated that “filth and garbage — puja material, plastic bags, etc., — were disposed into the Delhi side of the canal and it badly requires cleaning, desilting and repair of its embankments”.

The old Munak Canal branch was the “main source” of water supply to the Haidarpur water treatment plant till the commissioning of the Munak CLC channel earlier this year. In contrast, the newly commissioned parallel CLC channel has clean water and full flow.

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Khanna in his report highlighted several issues, including presence of silt and lack of lining at many places in the old canal, lack of security for the expensive water meters as well as requirement of barb wire fence along the Munak Canal to prevent animals and humans from falling in.

The bench was hearing a PIL seeking commissioning of the 102-km Munak Canal which was constructed by Haryana with financial assistance of around Rs 400 crore from the Delhi government on the condition that the national capital be supplied 80 million gallons per day (MGD) water through it.

Haryana, in its defence, claimed that the Delhi government has not paid it Rs 319 crore for the purpose of cleaning the old canal.

The bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul, however, did not go into the issues and noted that the water meters installed in the new Munak Canal showed that Delhi was getting water as stipulated in its earlier orders.

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