India News | Interference in Yamuna's Restoration Work Not Justified: Delhi HC
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The condition of Yamuna has surpassed the threshold where any further interference in its rejuvenation and restoration efforts cannot be justified, the Delhi High Court has said while rejecting a plea against the DDA action of removing nurseries from the river bed.
New Delhi, Mar 3 (PTI) The condition of Yamuna has surpassed the threshold where any further interference in its rejuvenation and restoration efforts cannot be justified, the Delhi High Court has said while rejecting a plea against the DDA action of removing nurseries from the river bed.
The high court said it has no hesitation in holding that the petitioner nurseries are encroachers with no legal right to continue to use and occupy the land for any purpose or to seek rehabilitation by way of alternative allotment.
It said any intervention would only serve to hinder and delay the timely execution of the public projects that are being developed for securing the green cover of Delhi.
"The present condition of the Yamuna River has surpassed the threshold where any further interference in its rejuvenation and restoration efforts — whether under the guise of humanitarian or sympathetic considerations — cannot be justified.
"Any such intervention would only serve to hinder and delay the timely execution of the public projects...," Justice Dharmesh Sharma said in a recent order.
The high court made the observations while dismissing a plea by a nursery welfare association working in the area of Yamuna Khadar falling in Zone 'O' of the Master Plan for Delhi-2021, that is, the Yamuna Floodplains.
The association was aggrieved by the Delhi Development Authority's (DDA) action of uprooting their nurseries and destroying all plantations with bulldozers.
The plea claimed that the demolition drive was conducted by DDA without giving an opportunity to the association members to be heard and without conducting a physical demarcation of the land as per the directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2019.
The court said apart from a flimsy attempt to tug at the conscience of this court by proclaiming themselves to be the guardians of the environment, the petitioners have brought nothing tangible or legitimate to convince it that they are entitled to continue occupation on the or to be rehabilitated by the authorities.
The court said the petitioners' plea that horticulture activities in the Yamuna floodplains area are permissible under the orders of the NGT cannot be sustained.
The fact remains that the subject land is a part of 'Zone-O' of the MPD-2021, which is 1 in 25 floodplains, on which all encroachments have to be promptly removed by the DDA for developing the 'Mayur Nature Park' in terms of the NGT directions, it said.
"At the cost of repetition, the land in question falls under the Zonal Development Plan for Zone- ‘O' as approved by the Ministry of Urban Development, and as per the Master Plan for Delhi-2021, it is required to be rid of encroachments, in the larger public interest, in terms of directions passed by the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal besides this court in numerous cases," the high court said.
The court said it has no hesitation in holding that the petitioners are encroachers with no legal right to continue to use and occupy the land for any purpose or to seek rehabilitation by way of alternative allotment.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)