Sheila seeks Haryana

New Delhi, May 25 (UNI) Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has sought the cooperation of the neighbouring states in the National Capital Region to help solve problems like water scarcity and power shortage plaguing the national capital.

Speaking at the 29th meeting of the NCR Planning Board here yesterday, she said the city was dependent for water supply on external sources that pass throgh Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

''I will request for speedy construction of the 102 km-long pucca parallel channel from Munak to Haiderpur. It is an extremely important project to us as it will provide an additional 80 million gallons per day of raw water to Delhi on account of savings due to evaporation and pilferage,'' she said.

''This water is essential for our Okhla and Bawana Water Treatment Plants, which have been especially set up to treat this water to meet the drinking water requirements of Delhi,'' she added.

I would also aliain the UP government to fulfill its commitment for releasing 300 cusecs of raw water for the Sonia Vihar Water Treatment Plant, Ms Dikshit said.

An additional source of water to quench the thirst of Delhiites could be the underground water in Meerut area, the Chief Minister said.

According to the Central Ground Water Authority the level of ground water in these areas was increasing rapidly and was likely to affect the fertility of the land. If this water was harnessed by sinking series of borewells it would not only benefit the farmers in these areas by slowing the rise in water table but also make precious water available to Delhi, she said and added ''I will request the NCRPB to study the project further''.

Talking about power, Ms Dikshit said Delhi was able to meet its power demands partially. This shortfall could be met through creation of additional power generation units within Delhi and outside, assistance from the Northern Grid, restriction on overdrawal from the grid and maintainance of grid discipline and support from other central power generatoin units, she added.

One more very important inter-state issue that was unresolved since the past many years regarding the land holdings by states of Haryana and UP in the territory of Delhi, which were impeding progress of key infrastructural and development projects, she said.

A series of meetings at various levels had failed to resolve these matters satisfactorily. The issues included 21 acres of land in Adchini in South Delhi whose lease stood terminated but Haryana was not giving back possession of the land, she added.

Regrading UP, Ms Dikshit said 17 acres of land falling along the alignment of Kalindi bypass road project connecting the DND flyway with NH2 bypassing congested Badarpur border crossing and even some parts of Faridabad and about 579 acres of land along the banks of river Yamuna were occupied by squatters.

''I would suggest formation of a multi-state task force to resolve these issues urgently,'' she added.

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