HC: build on Yamuna bed at own risk

Massive construction work for 2010 Commonwealth Games on the Yamuna banks will continue at the peril of the builders. These words form the thrust of a Delhi High Court judgment on the legality of the ongoing construction activity on the riverbed. Monday’s order also said the court has set up a five-member expert panel led by Nobel laureate and environmentalist R K Pachauri to monitor construction work on the riverbed. The judgment is addressed to the Centre, Delhi government, Delhi Metro, DDA, and any private party with stakes in the project. “We were told that construction at a massive scale was being carried out. We have made it amply clear that those raising constructions and creating third party interests despite the pendency of the writ petitions (in High Court), were doing so at their own peril,” a Division Bench of Justices A K Sikri and Rekha Sharma said.

“In her separate judgment, Justice Sharma did not mince words in criticising the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the DDA and NEERI for hastily supporting construction activity with little attention to ecological balance of the river. “Their hands appeared to be tainted,” she observed. Both judges found suspicious the contradictory role played by NEERI, which, in its 2005 report, spoke against “heavy capital investment” and advocated “horticultural operations” in the Yamuna bank, only to change its tone this year. An affidavit by NEERI recommended release of “vast chunk of land for urban activities”. The court said the government should provide the expert committee all information within three weeks to start functioning; the committee is to submit a report in court within four months. The court subsequently would pass “appropriate directions” on the findings. The decision comes on petitions filed by environmentalists who pleaded in court that the construction was on the riverbed and would, in time, “destroy the river and pose severe threat to the city as well”. The government, DDA and DMRC contended in court that the construction had started after “extensive deliberations” to develop the river, after getting the required environmental clearances from concerned authorities. The construction in question includes the Delhi Metro depot (called Yamuna Depot), the Metro Mall and the Games Village. The builders claimed any prohibition of construction for the Games would affect “national pride”, as also India’s reputation — a contention that environment activists placed secondary to saving the Yamuna.