22 June,2023 05:42 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
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The Bombay High Court on Thursday ordered the Taloja central prison authorities to provide clean drinking water to all its inmates.
Clean drinking water is a basic human right, the Bombay High Court said as it directed the central prison in Navi Mumbai to provide access to all inmates.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Gauri Godse noted that the Taloja jail inmates cannot be expected to use water being provided for bathing and washing for drinking purposes, too.
"Priority is clean drinking water. It is their basic right. It has to be separate from other water which is used for washing etc. You cannot include drinking water with the other water. We do not understand how drinking water can be the same," the Bombay High Court observed.
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The bench also directed the prison authorities to consider not measuring the amount of drinking water provided to the inmates and to increase the amount of water provided to them.
The court was hearing a petition filed by an inmate, Abhay Kurundkar, who claimed that they are not being provided with clean drinking water in the Taloja prison.
The bench had earlier this week directed the secretary of the Raigad district legal services authority (DLSA) to verify the claims made by the petitioner.
On Thursday, the court perused the report submitted by the secretary which claimed water was being stored in Sintex tanks in the prison and then kept in buckets provided to the inmates. The report said there was dirt in the water.
After going through the report submitted by the secretary, the court noted that supply of water was inadequate and also questioned about how the authorities expect each inmate to do everything in that one bucket of water provided to them.
"Is that adequate? How do you expect them to do everything in that one bucket of water. There is cleanliness, hygiene to be looked at," the bench remarked.
The court has asked the prison authorities to inform it what steps they plan to take to increase supply of water and improve its quality.
(with inputs from PTI)
