Crucial water link to Capital under watch to deter ‘mafia’

The deployment of police along the canal comes after the Supreme Court drew a direct link between the “tanker mafia” and the prevailing water crisis

The policeman is taking a breather, leaning against a tree and shielding his eyes as a fierce sun beats down, its light reflecting off the water. The constable is one of 56 police personnel deployed on Thursday along the Munak Canal near the Delhi-Haryana border, the key waterway under the scanner amid allegations of illegal water lifting and leakages, and disputes arising from the actual quantum of water being released by Haryana to the Capital.

Delhi Police officers patrolling along the Munak canal at Khera Kalan. (Sanjeev Verma/HT)

This summer, Delhi is on the brink of a water crisis, with the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) producing 951.2 million gallons per day (mgd) on Thursday — below the targeted supply of 1,000 mgd for the summer months. The Delhi government has blamed Haryana for the crisis, claiming that the neighbouring state has released a less than adequate amount of water for the city via the Munak, but Haryana in turn has blamed leakages and theft in the Capital for the deficit.

The deployment of police personnel along the canal comes after the Supreme Court on Wednesday drew a direct link between the “tanker mafia” and the prevailing water crisis, and warned the Delhi government that it will hand over the case to the Delhi Police. Later in the day, lieutenant governor VK Saxena directed the Delhi Police commissioner to ensure strict vigil along the canal to prevent the further theft of water.

To be sure, private individual tankers are not permitted in Delhi — a DJB official said that the water utility operates both government and hired tankers to supply water to water-starved areas of the city.

On Thursday, a senior police officer, on condition of anonymity, said 56 personnel patrolled the entire 18km stretch of the canal that falls in Delhi — from Harewali along the Haryana border to the Outer Ring Road near Haiderpur water treatment plant— in three 8-hour shifts: in police control room (PCR) vans, cars, or on motorcycles.

He said that two tankers operating illegally were impounded — one each from the Kacchi Sadak and Bawana Industrial Area.

The Munak Canal is a 102km concretised channel in Haryana and Delhi that is part of the Western Yamuna Canal. It carries water from the Yamuna at the Munak regulator at Karnal, Haryana and travels south via the Khubru barrage and Mandora barrage, finally terminating at Haidarpur in Delhi. The canal was constructed by Haryana between 2003 and 2012 after it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Delhi government in 1996.

Earlier, 30-50% of the raw water discharged from the Tajewala head works at Yamuna Nagar in Haryana got lost through seepage during transit. The commissioning of the carrier-lined channel resulted in the availability of an addition 180 cusecs of raw water for Delhi, leading to the commissioning of new water treatment plants at Dwarka, Bawana, and Okhla.

On Thursday, during a spot check at Siraspur, HT spoke to constable Sunil Kumar, who said that his team received the patrolling orders on Wednesday night.

“The patrolling duties have been provided based on the jurisdiction of local police stations. Besides this Maruti Gypsy, the Badli police station has also deployed one PCR van and motorbike riders,” he said, adding that each team patrols its zone for eight hours.

HT also found that large sections of the canal were poorly maintained, with overgrown water hyacinths in parts. The road along the canal was peppered with large concrete blockades.

“This is a crime-vulnerable site so these barriers have been in place from a long time,” Kumar clarified.

No water tankers were to be seen, and Kumar claimed that there was no tanker mafia in the neighbourhood.

Locals, however, disagreed, saying illegal water tankers do lift water from the canal at multiple points during the peak summer months.

Prakash Chand, 34, who works in the Bawana Industrial Area but lives in Siraspur, said Thursday was a rare exception when water was not being illegally lifted.

“Water tankers are common here, especially around the Khera Khurd village culvert (3 km away). The local neighbourhoods don’t face a water shortage ever, but these tankers are used to supply other parts of the city,” he said.

Santosh Rajpal, who runs a small tobacco shop along the Khera Khurd bridge, said that there are several tankers illegally operating in the area. Pointing to a spot on the other side of the canal, he said, “Just behind that park in Rohini Sector 27, there are a couple of makeshift tanker-filling stations. When there is heightened vigil on the canal — like today — they (the “mafia”) use borewells to fill tankers.”

Around 6km upstream, two police vans and four motorcycles were patrolling the patch of the canal along the Bawana jhuggi- jhopri (JJ) cluster.

Local residents said that the tanker mafia was even more brazen along this section of Munak. Md Aamir, a resident of the JJ cluster, said the illegal tankers start filling up water from the canal at 6am, returning periodically to fill up for the next illegal shipment.

“They usually throw pipes into the canal and use high-pressure pumps to fill up the tankers. This happens right in the open. We did not know that it was illegal,” he said.

Aashu Sharma, another resident, said that tankers were conspicuously missing on Thursday, probably due to the police presence. “Initially, we thought another dead body was found floating in the canal. Is all this police presence is because of the tankers?” he asked.