Dainik Bhaskar Dry Yamuna 06 June 2013

Demolitions on floodplains (Time of India 26 May 2013)

 NOIDA: The Gautam Budh Nagar district administration cracked down on the land mafia on Saturday. Amid heavy security, about 300 acres on the Hindon floodplains, estimated to be worth Rs 6,000 crore, were freed up. The move comes five days after the National Green Tribunal imposed a ban on construction and directed UP, Delhi and Haryana to demolish illegal structures, both temporary or permanent, on the floodplains. The UP police have registered an FIR against unknown people for criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and fraud. The Authority acted on allegations about UP government officials conniving with the mafia to usurp large tracts of the floodplains on the Yamuna and the Hindon. A drive was launched by chairman and CEO Rama Raman. "Thousands of acres of fertile land in the floodplains is being usurped and sold to buyers for constructing houses," Raman said. "The aim is to get hold of the land sharks. Officials conniving with these unscrupulous elements will not be spared," he said. The CCEO has asked for a list of the usurpers. He also cautioned people to not get duped by land sharks.  The demolition drive, which began around 6am, saw the district administration officials, cops from six police stations and 200 PAC officials join forces with the Noida Authority. "Nearly 12 lakh sq m of land on the main road between Noida and Greater Noida near Haibatpur village in Greater Noida (west) area, was levelled," said Rajesh Prakash, Noida's administrative officer. In about two hours, 20 bulldozers, 20 dumpers and two cranes razed small houses and boundary walls across 2km. "Scores of plots carved up by the land mafia were also cleared," Prakash said. Around 200 structures were demolished, affecting some 100 families. As the demolitions began, villagers and property owners put up a resistance. Many claimed their properties were registered and they had documents to prove ownership. The district officials, however, refused to relent.

DDA Told to come clean on Dwarka Water Bodies (Time of India 25 May 2013)

New Delhi: The Delhi Parks and Gardens Society CEO has summoned officials from DDA on June 4 to ask about their plans for reviving and maintaining water bodies in Dwarka. The meeting has been called in response to a story published by TOI on May 22 which highlighted how the land-owning agency was undoing work put in by residents to revive a water body in Sector 23.

"I was informed that the residents didn't receive a favourable response from DDA even after they met the official concerned. Having seen what is being done to this water body by the DDA, I have asked them to prepare an integrated plan on water management for Dwarka. If officials fail to act on this, a complaint against them can be made in the court for violation of its orders," said S D Singh, CEO of the society and nodal officer for work on revival of water bodies in Delhi. He added that DDA would have to submit a detailed plan with a time frame for revival of each water body in Dwarka. "The fact that the court has not set any deadline for the work has made the land-owning agencies lax. I have asked DDA to give a break-up of each phase under which they will carry out work."

Dwarka is a parched area and groundwater recharge is possibly the only way to make the area self-sufficient. Diwan Singh from Natural Heritage First, who was part of the team that worked on the revival of the over 200-year-old water body in Dwarka said, "All water bodies should be preserved and revived as they offer an excellent platform to recharge ground water. This is especially true for area like Dwarka where there is barely any civic supply. Earlier, DDA was receptive to our proposal for involvement of residents in the pond revival exercise but for some reason, they back tracked and insisted on carrying out beautification work that has more or less killed the water body."

The water body was revived through a community effort in 2012. Before that, the pond was dry for most part of the year or filled with sewage. Its ownership was transferred to DDA in 1984 at which point the water was still quite clear. After 1984, however, its condition deteriorated rapidly due to flow of sewage into it and its area shrunk considerably. This year, DDA decided to desilt the water body and in the process, it managed to put the silt back into the pond, close down rain water carrying channels created by residents and reduce its area.

Homes eat into water body (Time of India 26 May 2013)

NEW DELHI: A dusty road, snaking between closely set houses, takes you to this water body in south Delhi's Rajpur Khurd. It is completely dry and surrounded by temples, houses and a dharamshala which makes it hard to locate. In fact, the road that leads to it was once submerged under this decades old water body.

"The water body was originally 7,800 sq yards and was part of gram sabha land. At present, only 1,000 sq yards remain. When we first visited, there was only one small temple on the johar, or water body, and some houses surrounding it. The water body originally stretched beyond the houses to the road. In the past three years, there have been three court commissioner visits during which to this water body during which time the commissioners have taken up the case of

case of encroachments was discussed but no action was taken," said a government source.

The temple is now surrounded by village houses, another temple, a dharamshala and a road because of which barely one eighth of the water body is left. The encroachments have also covered the water channels that could have ensured that whatever is left of the water body could at least have a water supply. A village elder, who was sitting by the water body when TOI visited, said the temples were "ancient". When questioned further, he added that they had come up about 10 years back. "The water body is also quite old and has been there since before this area was inhabited. However, it is mostly dry now. Water is difficult to spot even in monsoon," said Thakurji, a resident.

Sources say the court commissioners had stopped work on buildings during their visits. They had asked local authorities to take action against it but the buildings that were under construction during their inspections are now complete and in use. The area deputy commissioner had also passed orders, asking for a list of structures that have come up on the johar land recently but no action was initiated against offenders.

The area where the johar is located, close to Chattarpur, is dotted with several water bodies of varied sizes. Preserving them in this part of the capital is even more important because south and southwest Delhi are woefully short of ground water.

"Most of the water bodies here, other than those located in the forest area and within Bhatti and Asola, are encroached upon and the local government officials are party to it. This is why despite so many orders, the encroachments have not just not stopped, only increased," said a government official.

Water woes continue in south Delhi (Time of India 26 May 2013)

NEW DELHI: Despite Uttar Pradesh releasing water for Delhi after the Ganga canal closure, some parts of south Delhi continue to face water shortage. A two-hour long power cut at the Cantt booster pumping station on Thursday disrupted the water supply again for the next two days in the Vasant Vihar command area and part of the Ring Road.

Delhi Jal Board is facing a massive increase in demand with Delhi being ravaged by a heat wave since last week. "DJB has touched a record-high production and is treating 834-835 million gallons water per day. Since demand is so high, we have been trying to rationalize water so that everyone gets some supply at least," sai However, the residents in Saket and nearby Vasant Vihar are complaining that water is yet to reach their homes. At Saket's D block, water supply was disrupted around May 17 - the day the Ganga canal was shut. "Before that, we got water twice a day for a total of three hours. Initially, water supply stopped completely but intermittent supply resumed after a few days. With UP releasing water, we thought that supply would be back to normal but we are only getting water once a day and that too for 30 minutes or so at 4am. Most parts of Saket are facing this problem," said a resident of D block.

DJB officials said water supply was being rationalized in the area because of the earlier shortage and would resume normally after a day or so.

In Vasant Vihar - where officials say the entire allocation of 0.8-0.9 MGD is being provided - some residents have claimed that their supply has still not resumed.

"We were assured by DJB that supply would resume by Friday but nothing has happened. We did not get water even on Saturday. Many people had to take expensive private tankers," said a resident.

DJB officials said there was no real water shortage in the city and blamed the problems to local faults. Residents of other areas might be facing a pinch because their supply would have been reduced to compensate for the high demand, an official said.

DDA told to remove rubbish from Yamuna bed by July 17 (Times of India 24 May 2013)

NEW DELHI: The national green tribunal has asked DDA to prepare a plan for removal of all encroachments from the Yamuna riverbed falling under Zone 'O' of the Master Plan by July 17. While hearing the case of Manoj Misra against the Union of India over dumping of debris on the Yamuna river bed, a five-member bench headed by NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar also observed that affidavits submitted by government departments and Delhi Metro stating how much debris had been dumped by each of them and what had been done to remove it from the riverbed were incorrect. "Affidavits on behalf of the public authorities including DDA, PWD, CPWD, DMRC, state of Uttar Pradesh and different corporations have been filed and we have no hesitation in noticing that these affidavits are entirely incorrect and do not comply with the directions contained in our orders," the order says.

The court has now asked all heads of department including the vice-chairman of DDA, directors general of CPWD and PWD, chief secretaries of UP and Delhi and municipal commissioners of Delhi to file fresh affidavits stating how much debris, construction and demolition waste has been generated by each agency in the last 10 years, where this debris has been dumped as per the their contracts and a list of contractors hired by these authorities who have worked on different projects and the payments made to each.

The affidavits are to include steps taken for removal of the debris till May 23 and the extent of removal of debris till the next date of hearing on July 17. The affidavits are to be submitted in court within the next six weeks.

Green Tribunal sounds alert over damage to Dadri wetlands (The Hindu 23 May 2013)

Notices to U.P, Greater Noida, Uttam Steels, Shiv Nadar varsity

Special ArrangementENCROACHED HABITAT: The Dadri wetlands are the only place within a 200-km radius of the Capital where nilgais and blackbucks co-exist naturally.

The National Green Tribunal on Wednesday issued notices to the Union Environment Ministry and others for failing to take steps to protect the Dadri wetlands in the National Capital Region. The wetlands are the only area within a 200-km radius of the Capital where blackbucks exist in their natural habitat along with nilgais, and is home to more than 200 species of rare and migratory birds.

The Tribunal also issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh Government, Greater Noida Authority, Uttam Steels and Associates for destroying the wetland under the banner of Ansal API and the Shiv Nadar University. The notices followed a petition filed by Akash Vashishtha who raised the issue of destruction of eco-precious Dadri wildlife habitat and sought directions to restrain the builder and the university from carrying out any construction activity in the surroundings.

“Although the wetlands falling in a protected area are to be governed by the Wildlife Protection Act, areas such as Dadri wetlands have to be protected under the Wetlands (Conservation & Management) Rules framed under the Environment Protection Act, 1986,” noted Amit Khemka, the counsel for the petitioner.

“It is strange that although the government authorities are well aware for over two years that the builders are causing massive damage to these wetlands for monetary benefits, the authorities are only dragging their feet and allowing the rich biodiversity of the area to be destroyed continuously,” said Mr. Khemka.

The court has fixed July 10 as the next date of hearing in the case.