<In the article I is not Me; this was written on behalf of someone>

Delhi being my birth place and home, I feel a sense of responsibility to this city. When I look back on how the city has grown over the years, it gives me a mixed feeling of pleasure and pain. It is not only the power centre of the country but also provides vast employment to lakhs of people in almost all sort of services, but the question that arises is – Is this growth sustainable?

Is the city showing signs of crumbling under pressure? Are we showing due respect to the city’s natural resources? Is all the growth also development? Are our developing agencies like DDA, misusing the word development and subjecting the city to unabated concrete growth which abuses its natural resources?

The city’s two ‘sacred’ natural features – The Yamuna and The Ridge are crying for their preservation. One has turned into a sewer and other being made extinct. The Ridge has been encroached on many places and more so, by the very agencies which are entrusted with its protection. Why has DDA, the protector, turned its destroyer?

This agency has duty to protect ridge under all the master plans but it started showing signs of deviant intentions when it gave incomplete maps of the Ridge to Loveraj Kumar Committee for its notification as a forest. As a consequence many Ridge areas, including a huge area of 640 Hectares of Vasant Kunj Ridge, escaped this notification. Then in 1996 it started off a 13 hotels project in this area, which was stopped by the efforts of concerned citizens. Yet it allowed Hotel Grand to come up in this area and, now, auctioned a big part of this area for shopping malls.

The Lal Khet jhuggis were uprooted in this area in 2004, on the pretext of preserving the region. Today I can only wonder why our poor were punished and mall owners awarded.

The Ridge is a lifeline of Delhi, a vital water recharge area where 85% water percolates as per CGWA, one of the highest percentages in the world. It acts as a green buffer, a sink for pollution and gives a much ambient atmosphere to South Delhi, compared to rest of Delhi where, Ridge has been eliminated or does not exist. South Delhi has survived till date because of this Ridge. How can one afford not to be pained by the rape of such an area – that also for the third time?

We in Saket have learnt from the concerned citizens trying to save the Ridge for all it has to offer. We also stand up and claim that water first be ours and then put to any other use. We stand up against the insanity these malls in Saket will bring about.

I appeal to the MoEF not to come under any pressure and take a moral stand, acknowledging the sentiments of the peoples of this area and deny clearance to these malls.

It is for our tomorrow we have to take stands today, and today I take this stand – I give credit to the people who have brought about the stay on the Vasant Kunj Malls. I fully support the Ridge Bachao Andolan and, will actively fight for the rightful preservation of this heritage