Delhi Police on Thursday began patrolling the Munak canal area along the Haryana border to keep a check on the activities of the ‘water tanker mafia’ even as Water Minister Atishi said the national capital is facing a 50 million gallons per day shortfall in water production.
The present crisis, Ms. Atishi said, cannot be solved by merely restraining the tanker mafia.
The police patrolling came a day after the Supreme Court on Wednesday rapped the Delhi government over the prevalence of tanker mafia and wastage of water in the national capital, saying that it would have to “unleash” the Union government-controlled Delhi Police on “these elements” if the AAP government does not act in time.
After the apex court’s rap, Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena instructed Delhi Police for greater vigilance and patrolling in the area.
A senior officer said police teams from Bawana, Narela, Shahbad Dairy and Samaypur Badli have started patrolling the 15-km stretch of the canal that enters Delhi from Bawana and reaches the Haiderpur treatment plant.
“Round-the-clock patrolling is being conducted in six different shifts, with each shift spanning over 8 hours with at least 10-12 officials,” the officer added.
Addressing a press conference, the Water Minister said the tanker mafia, whether they were from Haryana or Delhi, needed to be checked. However, she added that the police in both Haryana and Delhi are controlled by BJP governments, and accused the ruling party of doing politics over the matter.
‘No major leakage’
“There is no large-scale leakage, it’s a rumour. Leakages, if any, in the pipelines are repaired within 12 hours,” Ms. Atishi said after inspecting a pipeline network supplying water to south Delhi residents as the water crisis in the city worsened.
The Delhi government, she said, was ensuring patrolling by Additional District Magistrates and Sub-Divisional Magistrates across the city so that not even a single drop of water is wasted due to pipeline leak.