The Delhi High Court Wednesday directed Delhi's chief secretary to convene a meeting of heads of various departments to chalk out remedial measures to clean the contaminated water in Tughlakabad Ridge area.A bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice I.S. Mehta expressed reservation over the "tardy progress" made by the authorities in coming out with a concrete plan to clean the high level of water contamination in the artificial lake in the area.The chief secretary was asked to convene a meet between officials of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)."We are not at all happy with the manner in which the issue has been dealt with by the authorities," the bench observed, and directed the chief secretary to hold the meeting within three weeks.The court further directed that a status report be filed within two weeks thereafter.On Dec 18, the DDA, DJB, DPCC, and ASI had convened a meeting but it failed to churn out a plan to ensure that the quality of water was acceptable for maintenance of the lake and water bodies.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Tughlakabad resident Manoj Kumar, who said birds and animals were dying because of poisonous and polluted water released from illegal factories in the area.It said there was a forest area in Tughlakabad on DDA land and residents of the area were running illegal factories and using chemicals, whose hazardous discharge was contaminating the water in the forest.The discharge has created an "artificial lake" and the polluted water "is spreading in the whole forest", it said. It said animals were dying on a large scale.