The Hindu : New Delhi News : ‘Clearance to Games Village site illegal’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007
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New Delhi

‘Clearance to Games Village site illegal’

Mandira Nayar

‘Environment Ministry has been tricked to dilute conditions’

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Development Authority may have a lot of explaining to do about the site it chose for the 2010 Commonwealth Games Village. Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan (YJA), a group of concerned citizens and non-government organisations, has alleged that the DDA has gone ahead with the plans to build the Games Village on the riverbed overriding serious concerns expressed by the Expert Appraisal Committee of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) that studied the proposal in 2006. It has substantiated these allegations through the documents it got through Right to Information applications.

“The MoEF has been cajoled, tricked and browbeaten into diluting the conditions of environment clearance. Since the due process of law has been short circuited on extraneous considerations like lack of time and ‘false’ national interest, the clearance as it exists is illegal and liable to be quashed as being unfair, unbiased and contrary to the requirements of public safety and interest,” charged YJA convenor Manoj Kumar Misra.

When the Expert Appraisal Committee made a site visit in November 2006, it raised a number of environmental issues that the DDA has still not resolved, claimed Mr. Misra. “The Committee had concerns about the location of the project in the river floodplain, the creation of efflux in the river during high floods, the interference with recharge of ground water, the adverse effect of filling flyash over the project site as well as the high traffic density indicated by the project. The Committee also suggested that the DDA find an alternate site, but it didn’t even consider that,” charged Mr. Misra.

‘National interest’

Racing against time to build the Games Village before 2010, the DDA is alleged to have “pressed hard” and managed to bulldoze all the concerns under the guise of national interest, said Mr. Misra.

“The Committee accorded the DDA environmental clearance under strict compliance of terms and conditions. Subsequently all these concerns seemed to have been watered down – with clearances given – and the file notings indicate that things went down hill from here,” alleged Mr. Misra.

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