Taking note of brazen encroachments along the River Yamuna, the New Delhi high court has directed the Centre and other concerned agencies to remove all illegal structures along the river embankment and its bed, including religious places.
"We direct all the authorities concerned -- Delhi Development Authority, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Public Works Department and Delhi Jal Board as well as the Central Government -- to forthwith remove all unauthorised structures put up in Yamuna bed and its embankment within two months," a division Bench comprising Justice Vijender Jain and Justice B N Chaturvedi said.
Seeking a compliance report by May 14, the court appointed senior advocate Amarjit Singh Chandhioke as amicus curaie [a lawyer to assist the court] to adjudicate the matter arising out of a petition on encroachment of the government land, including that by the slum dwellers.
"There is a never ending drama of illegal encroachment going on in the capital city of our Republic. Yamuna, which is a major source of water, has been polluted like never before and its bed have been encroached by unscrupulous persons with connivance of the authorities," the court said.
"Yamuna bed as well as its embankment has to be cleared from such encroachments as rivers are perennial source of life and throughout the civilised world, rivers, their water and surroundings have not only been preserved, beautified but special efforts have been made to see that they were free from any kind of pollution," it said.
The court said the river has been polluted due to dumping of waste, including dangerous medical waste and discharge of unhygienic material, its embankment had been encroached upon for the construction of 'pucca structure, including jhuggis and places for religious worship, which cannot be permitted any more'.
"The citizens of Delhi are silent spectators to this state of affairs, while no efforts have been made by the authorities to remove such unauthorised habitation from the Yamuna bed and its embankment," it said.
Expressing grave concern over the slow pace of settling the slum dwellers in new resettlment colonies, the court said at the existing pace it might take 'more than 272 years' to solve the problem of slums in the national capital.
It said the government would need approximately 3,000 hectares of land to settle the slum dwellers and it has so far acquired only 7,500 acres for this purpose at a cost of Rs 1.72 core per acre.
By this standard an amount of Rs 42,000 crore alone would be required for development of the land, the court said.
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