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Report on construction on Ridge demanded

Staff Reporter

Respondents to file replies by Feb. 25

The Ridge is a notified Protected Area barring construction
Construction is on at 315 hectares of total Ridge area

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought status reports from the Central Ground Water Authority, the Delhi Development Authority and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on alleged illegal construction on the Ridge in Vasant Kunj, Vasant Vihar and Delhi Cantonment by the DDA and private construction companies.

A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice A.P. Shah and Justice Sanjiv Khanna sought the status reports on a public interest litigation accusing the Authority and the private companies of carrying out construction on about 315 hectares of the total Ridge area of 650 hectares, endangering groundwater recharge in the area.

The petitioner submitted that the Geological Survey of India had in 1999 notified the Ridge area as Protected Area barring construction so that groundwater recharge was not disturbed.

The petitioner, Romesh Chopra, said construction going on in the area was in violation of the GSI notification.

Issuing the notices, the Bench asked the respondents to file replies to the petition by February 25.

Encroachment

The Court had in 2006 ordered immediate stoppage of all ongoing illegal constructions on the Ridge following filing of an inspection report by a Court Commissioner that colonisers at Aya Nagar in South Delhi had encroached on about 70 acres of the Ridge by filling up the ravines with garbage and soil and were selling them by carving out plots.

When the Court Commissioner submitted that the colonisers had filled up all the water bodies in the area, including an age-old pond, the Bench had said: “We do not have the words to express our anguish on the state of affairs.”

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