NGT dismisses plea against water tankers in Delhi

A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said the plea “lacks material” and alleges corruption “without stating any specific instances”.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) Wednesday dismissed a plea against illegally running water supply tankers in the national capital.

The petition alleged these water tankers are not registered with the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), the water utility in the city, and have been extracting groundwater without any consent. (HT FILE)

The petition alleged these water tankers are not registered with the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), the water utility in the city, and have been extracting groundwater without any consent.

A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said the plea “lacks material” and alleges corruption “without stating any specific instances”.

The green court was hearing a petition filed by Vikrant Tongad, an environment activist who said a large number of water tankers are running in Delhi and over the years, their numbers have increased in an unprecedented manner.

“While DJB has designated around 900 tankers on a daily basis to supply water to households in areas that do not have piped connections, there are over twice as many private and unregistered tankers operating throughout the city. There is no level of regulation as to where these tankers are sourcing water from,” the plea said.

The plea said the increase in the number of private water tankers has given birth to the “water tanker mafia”, which has been drilling roughly over 200,000 borewells for extracting groundwater, depleting the water table.

The petitioner sought penal action and said an environmental compensation charge be imposed on all private water tankers that are extracting groundwater without consent from the government.