SC on Delhi govt plea for surplus water, UYRB meeting on June 5

On Monday, the Supreme Court ordered that the Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB) hold an emergency meeting on June 5 to appropriately address the issue of water scarcity in Delhi. To alleviate the nation's current water crisis, the Delhi government was requesting that the Supreme Court order Haryana to release the excess water that Himachal Pradesh had given to the capital.

The bench standing on behalf of the Centre and the governments of Delhi, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh have agreed that a meeting of the UYRB be held to resolve the issue of water scarcity in the nation's capital, according to a vacation bench of Justices P K Mishra and K V Viswanathan. "In the course of hearing, all the parties agreed that there should be a non-adversarial approach to the problem of scarcity of water faced by the citizens of Delhi," the bench said.

It said the lawyers have "agreed that there shall be an emergent meeting of the Upper Yamuna River Board on June 5 to address the issues agitated in this petition and all other connected issues in right earnest so that the problem of scarcity of water for the citizens of Delhi shall be properly addressed".
The bench said the matter be posted for hearing on June 6 along with the minutes of the meeting of the board and the suggested steps to be taken by the stakeholders to solve the problem.

The Centre, the BJP-ruled state of Haryana, and the Congress-ruled state of Himachal Pradesh have joined the case brought out by Delhi's Water Minister Atishi, arguing that access to water is a fundamental human right and that it is necessary for living. The petition aims to direct the Haryana government to release water at the Wazirabad barrage immediately and continuously. This release should include all of the excess water that Himachal Pradesh supplies for the Delhi National Capital Territory (NCT), among other things.