Delhi: Encroachments on water bodies under sealing scanner

Environmentalist Diwan Singh said he had done a survey a few years ago, in which he found that around 70% of encroachment on the water bodies was by government agencies to build housing colonies, schools or other projects to ease the flow of traffic.

The apex court has asked government officials to submit a list of water bodies that have been encroached upon.

After action against encroachments on forest land, stilt parking and cases of conversion charge violation, the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee will now also focus on illegal structures on water bodies.

A member of the monitoring committee said the apex court has asked government officials to submit a list of water bodies that have been encroached upon, following which action will be initiated. “In the meantime, other actions on other forms of encroachments, especially on forest and government land, will continue,” he said.

The Supreme Court had asked the Delhi government counsel last week to file an affidavit with full details of action taken by its forest department to reclaim encroached land. It had also sought details of what the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) was doing to tackle encroachments on water bodies.

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According to a survey by the Delhi Parks and Gardens Society in 2014, of the 611 water bodies listed in Delhi, 274 have dried up and 190 cannot be revived. The reasons range from encroachments to sewage to concretisation. “Monitoring officials are also procuring details of water bodies, such as their khasra number and maps, to prepare an action plan,” the official said.

The NITI Aayog, in a recent report, had said that the capital, along with several other major Indian cities, could run out of water by 2020. Environmentalist Diwan Singh said he had done a survey a few years ago, in which he found that around 70% of encroachment on the water bodies was by government agencies to build housing colonies, schools or other projects to ease the flow of traffic.

The committee members further said that they have started desealing business establishments that have started following the norms by making the alterations, and have disposed 26 of 117 cases that were brought before them.