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Soz asks Mulayam to restore water for Sonia Vihar

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz on Thursday urged Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav to restore release of 300 cusecs of water for the Sonia Vihar water treatment plant in Delhi, which was suddenly curtailed on September 27 to 100 cusecs, affecting drinking water supply to the Capital.

In a letter to Mr. Yadav, Prof. Soz said: "keeping in view that drinking water for people constitutes a basic human right", he should issue instructions for release of 300 cusecs of water at the earliest. Mr. Soz reminded the Chief Minister that the Tehri dam project was "techno-economically" cleared subject to the agreement that the State Government would reserve 300 cusecs of water for Delhi's drinking water needs. The U.P. Government had also agreed to release water for the plant as per the formulation structured in a meeting in the Power Ministry on May 10, 2006.

As per the formulation, water was to be released to the Sonia Vihar plant in stages beginning with 70 cusecs from May 14 and when two units of the powerhouse were to be commissioned around June 20, the State was to release 300 cusecs from June 28. The Minister said the commissioning of the plant itself had taken time for initial flushing and testing, and the distribution of water could be started by Delhi Jal Board only during the first week of August.

Prof. Soz said the reason given by the field engineers for the curtailment of supply from U.P. was a reduction in the desired outflows from the Tehri dam. However, from the water discharge data available with the Central Water Commission it had been assessed that nearly 6,000 cusecs of water is being released below Tehri dam at present. "It is strange that a small requirement of 300 cusecs for the Sonia Vihar plant is not being met," the Minister said.

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