The CGWA (Central Ground Water Authority) and DJB (Delhi Jal Board) have been ordered by a bench, headed by NGT (National Green Tribunal) Chief Justice, Swatanter Kumar, to carry out joint inspection of Delhi Schools. Five private schools and five government schools will be inspected to probe whether they have failed to harvest rain water effectively. This comes after a plea alleging that many private and government schools in New Delhi were unable to install rain water harvesting systems (RWHS) in their premises.
Any five major government schools and private schools in the city will be inspected by the DJB and CGWA. They will report if the rain water harvesting systems are in existence and are effectively operational.
The directive was made during the hearing of a plea of Mahesh Chandra Saxena, who claims to be associated with an NGO working toward ground water conservation. He had filed a case claiming that the government departments, educational institutions and residential societies either have non-functional rain water harvesting (RWH) systems or none at all.
The bench has granted permission to the petitioner to participate in the inspection of the rain water harvesting system in the schools. The matter has been listed for its next hearing on February 9 this year.