Officials get jail for letting sewage flow into Yamuna

New Delhi: The Yamuna will finally get cleaner. In a stunning instance of judicial activism, the Delhi high court on Tuesday ordered a two-week jail term for former Delhi Jal Board CEO Arun Mathur and two other top officials of the Board for their failure to prevent sewage from flowing into the Yamuna, despite assuring the court two years ago that they would take steps to prevent this. The jail order was suspended for three months. This three-month breather is for the Board to get its act together and â€œstop entire flow of sewage into storm water drain,â€ said Justice Shiv Narayan Dhingra. At present, sewage is seeping into a 4-km storm water drain along south Delhi residential colonies. With the jail term hanging on the heads of the officers, there is a very good chance that the problem that didnâ€™t get fixed for two years will eventually get the DJBâ€™s priority attention. The three officers have also been fined Rs 20,000 each, to be deducted from their salary immediately. A fourth officer, ex-chief engineer BM Dhaul, escaped the HCâ€™s wrath as he has retired. TIMES VIEW The Delhi high court must be congratulated for its no-nonsense attitude. TOI has always maintained that those in public office must be held accountable and the HCâ€™s order is a landmark step in that direction. There should be zero tolerance for this kind of callous negligence as it shows total disregard for taxpayersâ€™ money with which our utilities are run and with which these officers are paid their salaries. Hopefully, â€œpowerfulâ€ people will now realise that they are in fact servants of the public. Judge lashes out at Delhi Jal Board for corruption New Delhi: The Delhi High Court finally acted and jailed former Delhi Jal Board (DHB) CEO Arun Mathur and two other top officials for their failure to prevent sewage from flowing into the Yamuna. The DJB had assured the HC two years ago that it would take steps to prevent this. Commenting on the lack of responsibility, a visibly angry Justice Shiv Narayan Dhingra said, â€œIt is only in this country that citizens have to knock at the doors of court to get relief of the kind sought here. It only shows the contempt with which normal citizens of this country are dealt by authorities, and essential facilities like sewage lines are not maintained by DJB despite repeated complaints of the citizen.â€ He also lashed out at the DJB for â€œdeep-rooted corruption in the departmentâ€. The extraordinary step to imprison the then CEO Mathur, chief engineer (Drainage) RK Jain and executive engineer P Pant came on a contempt petition filed by the residentsâ€™ welfare association of Greater Kailash, a south Delhi colony. It informed the court that despite assuring the court as far back as 2006, the DJB had failed to stop the flow of sewage in their colonyâ€™s storm water drain, which flowed untreated into the Yamuna. Justice Dhingra bristled at what he viewed as the DJBâ€™s attempts to wriggle out of this tight spot. The agency claimed it had faithfully carried out repairs but this was a case of reoccurrence of flow of sewage in the storm water drain due to fresh settlement. Lawyers for the DJB told the court that fresh tenders had already been invited to mend the sewer lines. But the court said, â€œExcuses are always available for those who donâ€™t wish to work.â€ It also trashed the DJBâ€™s defence that the sewer lines of certain colonies like Greater Kailash, Masjid Moth and Chirag Enclave were more than 35 years old and so susceptible to collapse. â€œMain trunk sewer lines are meant to last not decades but centuries since they are lifelines of cities and with them is connected the entire sewage system,â€ the judge said. He added: â€œIf a department meant to look after sewer lines is unable to stop flow of sewage Yamuna river, questions can be asked about the utility of such a department.â€

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