Disappearing lakes
and ponds
Delhi’s water bodies are disappearing –
most of them are now part of our history books. To address this issue, Tapas, a New
Delhi-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) filed public interest litigation (PIL) in
2000. Its aim was to ensure that all residents of Delhi receives adequate supply of safe
drinking water. It urged the state authorities to concentrate on reviving the already
neglected lakes before developing 150 new ponds in Delhi. In the Delhi’s High Court
(HC) this PIL has been hamstrung for past two years with no solution in sight.
Recently, a joint survey committee including
representative from various state agencies was constituted by the HC to suggest ways for
maintaining these water bodies. The committee recommended that only water bodies with an
area of about 4,000 square meters should be protected. The smaller water bodies should be
‘killed’, while ensuring that water bodies twice the size of the destroyed one
should be developed, at suitable sites. Tapas contested this report on the ground that it
is relatively easy to recharge smaller water bodies.
On 26 April 2002, the Delhi HC Division Bench
comprising, Justices Anil Dev Singh and O P Dwivedi suggested that irrespective of the
size of the water body, the responsibility for its protection lie with the ‘land
owning agency’ like Municipal Corporation of Delhi, New Delhi Municipal Corporation,
Delhi Development authority and others. Secondly, while citing Singapore’s example,
the court stressed on the need to protect Delhi’s water bodies for tourism purposes
also. The court has asked INTACH to identify the water bodies that could be developed as
tourist spots, so that the responsibility for developing them could be given to central
and/or state government.
If you have an answer on how to protect
Delhi’s water bodies from disappearing, share them. The Delhi HC is willing to hear
your views. You can either directly seek permission to speak during the court’s next
hearing or send in your views to sumita@cseindia.org or eklavya@cseindia.org
For further information:
Vinod Kumar Jain, TAPAS
Tel: 6804731 |
