Yamuna Bank was meant to be green area, says NGO (The Hindu 08 February 2011)

NEW DELHI: The tussle over the “legitimacy” of allowing the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to build a block of 90-odd flats for its employees at Yamuna Bank has intensified. An application filed under the Right to Information Act has revealed that the land on which the building is coming up was “inappropriately” shown as “transportation land” in the performa submitted to the Delhi Urban Arts Commission at the time of seeking their conceptual approval for the building plan in 2007.
Non-government organisation Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan, which has been fighting for the relocation of the building from the riverbed, has learnt from the Delhi Development Authority that the land use of the site was not changed by it but by the Union Urban Development Ministry in contravention of laid down rules.
“It is shocking that while the DMRC claims that it has all the relevant approvals for construction of the building, the land use conversion of the site itself is questionable. In response to an RTI query, the DDA has claimed that no specific use of the land in the riverbed occupied by the DMRC has been changed by it. It said it is the Ministry of Urban Development that has in the zonal development plan of zone ‘o' shown the land as ‘transportation' zone,” said Manoj Misra, convenor of the YJA.
Describing the change of land use by the Ministry as “illegal”, Mr. Misra said: “Under law, the DDA and the Union Government had to first notify their intentions and invite comments and objections from the public, which did not happen. The Ministry seems to have made its own changes, which it is not authorised to do.”
Contrary to the claims made by the DMRC, the land has been marked as “green area” in the Master Plan, said Mr. Misra.
“The Yamuna Bank depot and the building are all on land that was meant to be green. The DUAC was also misled into believing that the land use was permitted for “transportation use”. The conceptual approval from the DUAC was sought on incorrect information that the DMRC's architect at that time, Kuldip Singh, submitted,” Mr. Misra alleged.
DUAC member Ratish Nanda said: “The DMRC whether for the metro projects or even where they serve as contractors continue to flout laws. In the case of the building of 90 flats in tower blocks not only was the DUAC purposely misinformed of land use -- with the ‘river bed' being projected as ‘metro operational area' by the DMRC and the consulting architect but it did not even submit the housing design, which cannot be included in operational area, for approval as it is meant to be.”
For his part, Kuldip Singh said: “As architects we designed the depot and the buildings, we were given the site plan by the DMRC, for the land that was theirs. It was given to them by the Government for a project that is not for profit but for public use.” When questioned about the land use of the site, Mr. Singh said, at the time of submitting the performa at the DUAC, they believed that the government has permitted the DMRC to construct at the site. “We understood that the building is part of the depot and for those employees who are involved in essential services at the depot.”
He went on to say: “The mishap could have occurred because of the ambiguity in the Master Plan that was still to be drafted at the time of seeking the DUAC approval.”
YJA activists have also written to Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna urging him to intervene. “This suo motu approval of change in land use at the site in question is illegal and should be declared null and void,” said Mr. Misra.