HC: How can govt wish away 2 lakes?

The court also noted that Mehta’s order in that regard should be quashed,and has sought an explanation from him.

The issue involves the Mayapuri Lake and Jahangirpuri marshland — the High Court had asked the authorities to report on their status in February. Mehta,who heads the committee on waterbodies,was to direct various land-owning agencies to step up efforts towards reviving 629 waterbodies,as accepted by the Delhi government in court.

The Public Works Department (PWD),which owns Mayapuri Lake,had earlier given MCD Rs 1.5 crore to remove encroachments around it. But a division bench of Justices Mukul Mudgal and Vipin Sanghi observed in a recent order,“The PWD chief engineer,who had earlier (in 2006) filed an affidavit stating that the area of the waterbody was 36,000 sq m,now states that the waterbody does not exist.”

The 7.4 lakh sq m Jahangirpuri marshland in North Delhi was allotted to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) about 20 years ago. With changes in land-use policy,DJB in time sold some of the area to PWD and Delhi Police. Going by the revenue department’s records,the government had said that Jahangirpuri was never a waterbody — it had been defined as “land not fit for cultivation”.

With Masterplan-2021 also putting the marshland’s land-use status as “residential”,it was later decided that more than 100 acres of its land could be used to build a proposed housing colony of the PWD and police.

Court: How,why order was passed?
The court observed: “It is not clear how the order was passed by the Chief Secretary stating the land of Jahangirpuri marsh cannot be termed as a waterbody,and it shall be considered as per land-use plan of MPD-2021. Certain photographs have also been filed showing the extent of water in this waterbody and filling of fly-ash to fill up and destroy this waterbody.”

Environmentalist Vinod Kumar Jain had filed a contempt case contending that the government was going against the affidavit submitted by various land-owning agencies,though the Delhi High Court had on April 4,2002 ordered a revival of various lakes and ponds in Delhi. The court had passed the orders on Jain’s PIL,filed in 2000,urging protection and augmentation of the Capital’s groundwater resources.

Jain said the PWD had earlier accepted Jahangirpuri as a marshland in court,“and so was Mayapuri Lake”. So,he added,“it is not acceptable in court if the Masterplan defines a certain change in land-use.”

Based on Jain’s application,the court had last month asked Delhi government to submit a report on the two waterbodies’ recharge structures.