The fencing of the Bawana canal, which has become notorious as the “haunted canal”, is still on paper even after seven months of the announcement of the project. The service lane of the canal is used by the residents of nearby areas even as deaths due to drowning are very frequent as the canal is dangerously close.
Bowing to the demands of local residents after many fatal accidents were reported as the number of commuters drowning in the canal shot up, the city government had announced that a fence would be constructed along the 13 km stretch of the canal.
However, the officials of Delhi government’s public works department (PWD) claimed that the project is getting delayed because of the neighbouring state of Haryana.
“Most of the land near the Bawana Canal falls under the jurisdiction of Haryana government. The city government needs a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the land-owning authority before undertaking any construction. The Haryana government has not granted the NOC yet, resulting in the delay of the project. The government is ready to start the work,” said a senior Delhi government official.
The official further added that PWD minister Rajkumar Chauhan has called a meeting of the concerned officials of both the states to start the fencing project as soon as possible.
Besides the high death toll due to accidents, the Delhi police is also worried as the canal is being used like a graveyard by the criminals. Police officials claim that 90 per cent of the bodies recovered from the canal flow into Delhi’s jurisdiction from Haryana.
More than 22 bodies were fished out of the canal last year many of which so decomposed that identification was not possible.