New Delhi: The Delhi High Court yesterday issued notice to the central government on a plea seeking improvement in the quality of drinking water in Indian Railways and a probe into alleged manipulation while awarding contracts for supply of chlorination plants.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice B D Ahmed and Justice Siddharth Mridul sought response from the railway ministry and Northern Railway general manager by May 14, the next date of hearing.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation, told the court that the railway ministry has been failing to supply safe and wholesome drinking water to millions of rail passengers besides staff who live in railway colonies.
“Records which have come to light recently show that water quality has been very unsatisfactory for the past several years, and the rate of failure of water samples in the tests of water quality is extremely high,” Bhushan contended. The plea said lives of innumerable people are being put in peril due to the lackadaisical approach on the part of the authorities concerned.
It said the water treatment infrastructure for disinfection by chlorination has almost completely collapsed and level of contamination in the entire supply network from the source to the top was alarming.
Alleging irregularities in awarding of contract for supply of chlorination plants by the government and neglect of supply of good water quality, the plea sought a court monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team or Central Bureau of Investigation.
It said a highly objectionable method has been used to award contracts to a particular manufacturer of chlorination plants.
IANS
