Activists hope minister will stop Yamuna abuse (Times of India 08 January 2011)

AN ECO CONCERN No clearance from environment ministry was required when construction on Akshardham Temple started in 2000
Greens Rejoice As Jairam Decries Construction Of Structures On Riverbed New Delhi: Environment minister Jairam Ramesh might have opened Pandoras Box with his comments on the Akshardham Temple and Commonwealth Games Village, but his comments highlight the malaise that runs deep within our system. The ministers remarks on Friday,that the two structures should not have been built on the Yamuna riverbed,have made the environmentalists happy.They have appreciated the fact that the minister has finally acknowledged these problems in the open,and they hope he will take steps to ensure that such blatant encroachment of the citys natural resources does not take place again.One of the main issues that they hope the minister will now look into is the Millennium bus depot that came up as a temporary structure on the riverbed and which now the Delhi government is refusing to let go off. The Akshardham Temple, construction for which started in 2000, did not then require clearance from the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF).An amendment to the Environment Impact Assessment Notification of 1994 was made in 2004,which finally brought such construction activities within its purview. Construction on the temple started in 2000 after land was acquired from the DDA and UP Irrigation department.In 2003, UP State Employees Association went to the SC,challenging the construction on grounds of environment violations;but the court rejected the petition since petitioners could not rebut DDAs claims of ownership of land.However,an embankment was created to ensure that loopholes in the system were also plugged, said Manoj Misra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan (YJA). By the time construction for the Commonwealth Games Village started,there were several checks in place to ensure that no violation of environment norms took place.However,in a remarkable case of flip-flops,several agencies concerned gave their final nod to the project after having initially opposed it.In the initial phase of construction,YJA filed RTIs that revealed that of the five clearances DDA claimed it had acquired,three agencies had not said yes. DDA had earlier commissioned two studies: the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI),in its study,said construction should not take place on the riverbed,while MoEF raised questions on the study findings by Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS). The Yamuna Standing Committee stated in a July 2007 RTI response that no specific permission was accorded to DDA for raising permanent residential multistorey flats... in the flood plain of river Yamuna. Central Ground Water Authority,which notified the Yamuna flood plain in September 2006,said in its RTI response : no permission for construction of any borewell /tube-well has been accorded by CGWA for this purpose.Eventually,DDA managed to get even MoEF on board,while all other agencies gave their explicit nod to the village. In early 2010,the Delhi High Court acted on a PIL and formed a committee to look into the legal aspects of the village;however,DDA finally won the day after it appealed to the SC against the HC order,claiming that the embankment made for the Akshardham Temple would hold good for the Games village,and by definition,both were not in the flood plain. In a bid to stop any more unauthorized constructions on the riverbed, the L-G passed a moratorium on further construction on the Yamuna riverbed in early 2008,bringing an early end to several projects that had been planned and some that were already underway.The only exceptions were the Metro depot and the Games Village. Six months down the line,DDA also classified the riverbed as zone O in its master plan,the objective of which was to augment water supply,contain pollution and have eco-friendly green development.Nevertheless,construction on the riverbed has been going on unchecked,with most of them being government or state supported projects.Environmentalists have been asking for the riverbed to be notified to give it legal sanctity;the government has been dragging its feet over the issue.