Debris & nurseries eat into Yamuna (Times of India 13 January 2012)

Green Campaigners Informed L-G’s Officer in November, No Action Takem
The author has posted comments on this article Neha Lalchandani,
NEW DELHI: The government might have moved slums from the Yamuna riverbed but it has not been able to stop encroachments or large-scale dumping of construction material, rather demolition material, along the Yamuna Pushta in east Delhi. A small water body has almost completely disappeared under mounds of waste and debris and stray dogs roam the area foraging for food.

Farmers living there say hundreds of trucks carrying debris (malba) having been arriving there at night and dumping tonnes of waste along the road. Plant nursery-owners, too, have staked claim to the land. A stretch of about 80-100m from the Pushta road has been filled in and raised by a good 6-10 feet.

Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan (YJA) has been raising the matter with the lieutenant-governor's office since November 2011 but no action has yet been taken against the offenders. TOI was unable to reach the LG for a comment.

Alisha, whose parents farm a small patch in the river bed, says trucks have been coming regularly at night.

"We have no idea who these people are but they come regularly. I have never seen them during the day," she says.

The area which now houses a couple of nurseries was till a year back being used to grow rice. "During the annual flooding, the entire area would be under water. It used to be occupied by huts that were removed some years back. Then onwards, we were growing rice there. Since last year, the nursery-owners came down and started filling in the land. Now the area they occupy is a good 10 feet higher than our farms. They have also been slowly inching inwards and we had to fight them off from taking over our land, too," said Radhu, a farmer.

Manoj Mishra, convener of YJA, wrote to the LG saying that the Delhi Development Authority, Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the public works department be asked to get this "illegality stopped and get this site cleared of the dumped solid waste and restore the natural lake and the river bed" and report whether similar dumping was also taking place at other sites in the riverbed.

"Dumping at this site has been taking place for several months. We happened to chance upon it towards the end of last year. None of the government agencies are bothered. If this continues, we will lose precious land to encroachment. The government has clea rly failed to protect the riverbed though it is a notified area and the LG has issued a moratorium on it," said Mishra.