Temple,CWG Village should not have come up on riverbed: Jairam

“Did the Commonwealth Games Village get environment clearance? Yes,it did. Should it have got environmental clearance? No,I don’t think it should have. Should Akshardham have been allowed to be built? I don’t think it should have been allowed,” Ramesh said at a function to announce the new Coastal Zone Regulation (CRZ) rules.

Ramesh said his ministry was planning to bring in a River Regulation Zone notification on the lines of the CRZ notification to ensure that riverbeds are not damaged by constructions like the CWG Village and Akshardham Temple.

Both these complexes were mired in controversy and had attracted widespread opposition on environmental grounds. The Akshardham Temple,cleared by the NDA government,was completed in 2005. The CWG Village came up next to it last year.

Ramesh admitted that it was not possible to demolish the two structures,but added that it was extremely essential to ensure that similar constructions do not come up on ecologically fragile areas like a riverbed.

“The manner in which the Yamuna riverbed has been devastated by constructions should be a big wake-up call for all of us. Akshardham Temple was the first culprit,and there have been a series of constructions after that,” he said.

“We cannot demolish them now. But we have to ensure such things don’t happen in the future,” he said.