NGT body tells DDA to save Yamuna plains

The NGT committee has come down heavily on the management committees of the Tibetan Colony and Majnu Ka Tila, and residential settlements along the floodplains, which have been involved in “haphazard growth that has kept expanding and encroaching on the floodplains”.

Expressing concern over increasing encroachment on the Yamuna floodplains, between Old Railway Bridge and Wazirabad, the NGT-appointed Yamuna pollution monitoring committee has asked the DDA to “intervene” and plan a “well coordinated site visit” to contain the menace.

Expressing concern over increasing encroachment on the Yamuna floodplains, between Old Railway Bridge and Wazirabad, the NGT-appointed Yamuna pollution monitoring committee has asked the DDA to “intervene” and plan a “well coordinated site visit” to contain the menace. ((Arvind Yadav/ Hindustan Times))

The NGT committee has come down heavily on the management committees of the Tibetan Colony and Majnu Ka Tila, and residential settlements along the floodplains, which have been involved in “haphazard growth that has kept expanding and encroaching on the floodplains”.

“The area occupies an important segment, comprising 5.2% of the floodplains. Shops, eateries, vendors and vehicles have spread all over it. Nothing or no one gives the managements of Tibetan Colony and Majnu Ka Tila a licence for further construction and levelling of land, with the debris flowing into the river,” stated minutes of the meeting of the NGT panel earlier this month.