New Delhi: The Delhi authorities is finalising a complete borewell and groundwater extraction coverage to allow motion in opposition to unlawful withdrawal of groundwater, the Delhi Jal Board(DJB) has knowledgeable the Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal (NGT).
Submitting an affidavit, the DJB mentioned the framework was in a complicated stage and suggestions has been shared with the atmosphere division.
The announcement was made in a contemporary standing report submitted to the tribunal on December 1, whereas responding to instructions on unchecked groundwater extraction by Paharganj guesthouses for almost a decade. DJB mentioned that it has no statutory powers to penalise violators, however has collected ₹6.36 crore in water cess and sewerage prices.
DJB added that the Voluntary Disclosure Scheme, cited by accommodations and visitor homes to justify groundwater extraction, by no means had any authorized standing. It mentioned the scheme was operationalised solely by means of a 2014 public discover and by no means by means of any formal notification.
As per the submission, the NGT merely mentioned the thought of a voluntary disclosure mechanism in 2013, adopted by an commercial, with out making a binding authorized framework. The board mentioned that though round 11,000 registrations have been acquired, it didn’t have the authorized authority to course of purposes, impose penalties or regulate extraction.
“Consequently, no penalty was formally imposed or collected from any registrant,” the report said.
The submission comes months after the tribunal, in February 2025, known as the scheme a “rip-off” and identified that 442 of 536 recognized Paharganj visitor homes continued extracting groundwater with out metering, cost or regulation. It had additionally requested the Delhi chief secretary to research monetary losses, environmental harm and determine officers liable for permitting permissions for a similar within the title of a “non-existent” scheme.
In the meantime, DJB mentioned groundwater regulation is the mandate of the Division of Surroundings, district degree advisory committee (DLAC), district magistrates and the central floor water authority (CGWA). Beneath the 2010 notification, DJB mentioned its position is proscribed to receiving purposes and functioning because the DLAC secretariat with none authority to impose penalties.
“The notification of July 2010 merely designates the DJB, New Delhi Municipal Council, because the competent authority for processing purposes associated to groundwater extraction; nonetheless, it doesn’t confer upon competent authority (DJB, NDMC), any unbiased statutory energy to impose penalties, undertake enforcement, or provoke punitive motion in opposition to unauthorized groundwater extraction,” it said.
DJB additionally mentioned it by no means acquired any path to put in meters on VDS-declared tubewells and may legally set up meters solely on DLAC-approved borewells.
Following NGT’s instructions, DJB mentioned it has now instructed all Paharganj institutions drawing groundwater to put in meters. Twenty-two have complied, with the best extraction recorded at 2.31 KLD, which stays beneath the ten KLD threshold exempted from abstraction prices beneath a 2020 CGWA discover.
