‘Real culprits may be other people’

Though hopeful that the drain may be finally used for the purpose it was designed—to direct rain water into Yamuna—the residents call the judgement a ‘sad’ one, as only few people, who may not really have been responsible, were held accountable.

“This may be just a symbolic judgement. We are proud of the judicial system to have boldly fixed responsibility in this case,” Rajiv Kakria, member of the Greater Kailash Residents’ Association (GKRA), said. “But the real culprits may be some other people, who are the root cause of the problem. Storm water drains are the arteries of Delhi and sewage being directed into them is a deadly issue plaguing the city.”

Appalled by raw sewage flowing into the storm water drain at S block in Greater Kailash I, residents of the area moved the High Court in 2004 after having failed to obtain any relief from the concerned authorities—the DJB and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

Then on March 6, 2006, a historical judgement was made in favour of the S block residents, when the Court found DJB “guilty of polluting the river Yamuna for all these years”. The Court then ordered the DJB to fix all broken sewer lines by May 31, 2006, after DJB Chief Engineer B M Dhaul filed a report admitting that the sewer line was damaged with a 250 mm diameter crack.

“Some efforts were made then by the DJB to de-silt the drain, but the results were short-lived, as sewage continued to flow unabated into the drain,” said J R Luthra, president of the GKRA, and one of the petitioners in the case.

In a letter dated October 13, 2006, the petitioners even warned the DJB CEO to heed the problem and initiate action in accordance to the HC order, or they will be forced to move the HC’s special (contempt) jurisdiction.

On February 9, 2007, the DJB wrote to the RWA, stating: “¿the work, costing Rs 52 lakh, is under process of award and the work order is likely to commence in the first week of March, 2007. As anticipated, it is going to be complete in three months period.”

“But nothing was done for two years after the judgement, and we were forced to file a contempt petition on January 11, 2008,” Luthra said. “We did not want anyone to be punished; we wanted our problem to be solved.”

The sewage water flowing into the storm water drain in the area was also a health hazard to the residents. “Many residents have their tube wells installed in the vicinity of the drain, apart from the ones installed by DJB itself,” said Gulshan Bir Singh, another resident. “The sewage contaminates drinking water in large part of the colony because of a common water pipes network.”