The Times of India 31.07.2012
Haryana Urban Development Authority understates Gurgaon's population to tweak water figures
GURGAON: An affidavit
filed by HUDA grossly underestimates the population of Gurgaon to be
nine lakh, thereby unrealistically lowering the water requirement
estimate of the city. The HUDA submission was made in response to the
Punjab and Haryana high court ruling prohibiting new construction in
Gurgaon without an undertaking on water management.
The court is hearing a petition on the depleting groundwater table in the region.
The HUDA affidavit, a copy of which is with TOI, was filed last Friday
(July 27). The figure cited by HUDA, say petitioners, is highly
understated and would only adversely affect the court ruling. The
petitioners say they will challenge the claims by HUDA. "This figure of
nine lakh might just be the cumulative population of the 36 villages
falling within MCG limits. According to official statistics, the
population is over 20 lakh," said R S Rathee of Gurgaon Citizens'
Council, the main petitioner in the case.
The upcoming hearing
in the case regarding the issuing of fresh licences by HUDA for any new
real estate project in Gurgaon is on Tuesday. "HUDA sanctions building
plans while the department of Town and Country Planning issues licences
which are issued on the condition that the developer shall make
arrangements for water supply, sewerage, drainage, etc to the
satisfaction of the competent authority till external services are made
available for external infrastructure by HUDA..." reads the submission
made by HUDA.
The affidavit by the petitioners states that the
"colonizer also seeks environmental clearance in which they disclose the
source of water for construction purposes".
The document
states that there is a shortfall of 40MGD of water under the current
scenario which can be met once the pending work on NCR
channel (expected by October this year) and the Gurgaon water supply
(GWS) are in place. The document also states that approximately "2.7MGD
of water is being drawn from existing 77 tubewells in different areas"
for supply purposes. Naresh Kumar Pawar, the executive engineer, division III (representing HUDA in the case) was unavailable for comments on their submission statistics.
