By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 17: The High Court of Meghalaya on Wednesday disposed of a PIL on the water crisis in Shillong, while directing the government to ensure that the week-long crisis is resolved within 48 hours.
Disposing of the PIL registered on the basis of a report in The Shillong Times on Tuesday, the court directed coordination between the NHIDCL and the PHE Department before any road widening project is undertaken by the latter, “as it prima facie appears to be that by reason of excavation work carried out by NHIDCL, the cracks have developed in the pipelines that had resulted in leakage of water.”
S. Sen, counsel, submitted that the situation has not improved as promised earlier and brought to the court’s notice reports on water crisis published in ST on Wednesday. The counsel drew the court’s attention to the front page of the newspaper where two news items were published with the headings: Fresh leakage hits GSWSS shortly after resumption and Water crisis enters 7th day amid mounting public rage.
“The first news item reported that a relief that came after a week only lasted for two hours. The report also referred to the complaints of the residents wherein one of the residents appears to have said that the government has its own fleet of tankers and must deploy them in emergencies. It being reported that taking advantage of the acute problem, tanker operators are exploiting the situation with high rates which they are unable to sustain,” the the Division Bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Hamarsan Singh Thangkhiew observed.
The bench noted that the Shillong Municipal Board appears to have stated that it cannot provide large scale water relief during GSWSS shutdown.
Taking note of the status report filed by Advocate General Amit Kumar on behalf of the respondents, the court directed immediate steps to be taken to replace the old pipelines.
Besides explaining the reason behind the damage to the pipeline and outlaying the repair work taken, the status report also disclosed various steps taken by the PHE Department to ensure restoration of water supply to the affected areas.
“The Advocate General has submitted that the repairing works are proceeding and the water crisis would be over very soon. In the meantime, the PHE Department along with the Shillong Municipal Board would ensure that drinking water would be made available to the inhabitants of the localities and for that adequate fleet of tankers would be deployed soon,” the court said while disposing of the PIL.
