New Delhi, June 22
The proposed games village for the 2010 Commonwealth Games on the riverbed of Yamuna has environmentalists up in arms.
They now want the Prime Minister to intervene and ask the DDA to shift the site to an alternate location where " it will not cause irreversible harm to the river, its fragile eco-system, the water table in the region and people”. Besides, they are also demanding an immediate notification of the river regulation zone, the proposal for which is pending with the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) since 2002.
The group, comprising institutions like the IIC and INTACH, is also preparing for legal recourse in the form of a PIL, saying that the environmental clearance (EC) issued by the MoEF to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is not valid as the proposed site is “risky, unsafe and disturbed”.
“Riverbed of Yamuna is under severe assault
by conversion to deleterious alternative land uses in the name of development by various agencies, including the DDA,” says Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan Convener Manoj Misra, adding that "the entire plan for the village on the riverbed is a clever ruse to grab land in the river bed and accelerate the process of river bed conversion by the state in the popular PPP model”.
Basing his allegation on either “published source or file notings procured through the RTI”, he says the choice of village on the riverbed is a classic case of all that has gone wrong with the system.
“ First, let there be clarity that Commonwealth or any sporting event is no national project that has to be organised by the Government of India or the DDA. The IOA, like the BCCI is a private body that has won the bid to host the games,” he asserts.
Yamuna is the most polluted river in the country and the 22-km stretch in Delhi the most threatened riverine stretch anywhere in the world. The riverbed is so badly silted and encroached upon that you don’t need 1978-level floodwaters to suffer the same or worst devastation in the city. “ The situation now is that less will be able to do the same harm".
“According to a NEERI report commissioned by the DDA, the carrying capacity and present width of the river in Delhi is just about the minimum left to take care of city’s requirements in times of floods. No permanent structures of residential or industrial nature should be raised in the river bed,” he adds.
Misra’s contention is when Akshardham Temple was being constructed, the Congress in the Rajya Sabha had accused both the DDA and Delhi’s Lieut-Governor of damaging the Capital’s environment. "If the private temple in riverbed was a public safety issue in 2000, how come the games village next to the temple is fine in 2007," he questions.
He says there are serious problems with the environment impact assessment (EIA) as the chronology of event of EC given to the games village by the MoEF shows that officials overruled the recommendations of its committee and findings to succumb to DDA’s wishes and ultimatums for raising permanent structures on the riverbed despite the court’s directives and NEERI report against the raising of such structures.
“The EC dated April 2, 2007 by the MoEF is contrary to all expert advice and not based on merits of the case. It has been obtained through extraneous methods which makes a complete mockery of the whole EIA process and renders invalid the clearance,” he adds.
