Bus depot not encroaching on Yamuna: Govt

Standing counsel for the Delhi government,Najmi Waziri,who appeared for the DTC as well as the Irrigation and Flood Control department,refuted the allegations in the PIL and said the authorities were conscious of their duty of protecting the environment. “The site of this Millennium Bus Parking is not a river bed although it is now shown in the O-Zone of the Delhi Master Plan. It is a matter of record that the site has been in use as a huge fly-ash dumping site for over 40 years for a thermal power station. Fly-ash,deposited to a height of almost 20 metres and spread across many acres,was deposited at the site. All the fly-ash was removed before the bus depot was built. Incidentally,there is already a transmission tower running right in the centre of this area. This tower is an essential part of the infrastructure needs of the Capital. Therefore the contention that the said land is not usable for a bus depot or otherwise for an industrial use is baseless. It is incorrect to state that the land is a part of the floodplain of the Yamuna,” the DTC affidavit stated.

Similarly,the Irrigation and Flood department’s affidavit read that the raising and strengthening of the existing embankment on the right side of the river Yamuna,which the petition claimed to be dangerous for the river,did not tantamount to any kind of encroachment on the river bed.

The court has now asked the petitioner,Vinod Jain,to file his replies to the affidavits in four weeks.