PRESS RELEASE
 
Today, on 12 August, members of Dwarka Forum and members of Dwarka Kshetra Gram Sangathan met Shri Ashok Nigam ,the Vice Chairman of DDA and Shri Mahabal Mishra, the member of DDA board and voiced their objections to the New Zonal Plan during the hearing conducted by  the objections/ suggestions committee
 
On Aug 2, Diwan Singh and Dr. Vikram Soni had presented their objections/suggestions. The hearing was held under the chairmanship of  Mr. Garg, the Financial Commissioner
We  had filed objections with DDA in response to all the Zonal Plans, challenging the basis for increasing the carrying capacity in these plans. The crux of the objections was that the carrying capacity has to be decided by the water availability. Laying of sewage networks, building roads, flyovers and laying water pipeline and other such works are within the scope of developing agencies, but the availability of the most basic infrastructure i.e water, is outside the control of these agencies. Hence the carrying capacity of the city can only be increased if there is sufficient water availability. If the government is adamant on further expansion, it should only happen after the existing residents of the city are able to get sufficient water supply on a sustained basis. In the two studies presented,( one of them  titled as ‘Water and Carrying capacity of a city : Delhi’ by Dr. Vikram Soni, published in Economic and Political Weekly in Nov 2003, and the other one titled – ‘Water budget of Delhi’ by Diwan Singh and Dr. Vikram Soni) show that  almost 40 TO 45% of the city is today dependent on groundwater. And this resource can only be recharged to the extent of 1/4th of withdrawal. That means, this resource will soon deplete and become unusable in a matter of few years. In such circumstances, the city would not be able to sustain even the current population of the city, let alone the new migrants invited through expansion.
 
Today, all the above contentions were repeated and some Dwarka specific objections were made. On behalf of Dwarka Forum, Diwan Singh and Shri PS  Singh( convenor, water sub-committee) were present. The Chairman of the committee, Mr Ashok Nigam patiently listened to our contentions/objections and recorded our demand that the further expansion of Dwarka be withheld till the time there is sufficient supply to the existing residents. He also asked for a copy of the study by Dr. Vikram Soni, which was handed over to him immediately. We also objected to the fact  that even after DJB  refusing to commit any filter water supply, DDA has gone ahead with construction of Dwarka sub-city. We also handed over a copy of reply received under RTI from DJB stating their refusal to commit water supply for Dwarka and Vasant Kunj Project. This is nothing but sheer irresponsible behaviour at part of DDA to go ahead with urbanizing plans without availability of the most basic need i.e water. Mr. Mahabal Mishra, however, tried to argue that we have to build houses for more migrating population and we can not stop expansion. To this we again said that please do it only after there is sufficient water available for the existing population. Otherwise, the existing residents as well as the proposed new settlements will all collapse for want of water. Finally, he accepted that it should be done only after the needs of existing population are met on a sustained basis.
 
On behalf of Dwarka Kshetra Gram Sangathan, Mr. Suraj Bhan ( convenor) from village Dhul Siras, Sec-24 and Mr. Raj karan from village Badu Sarai were present. Both expressed their serious reservations with the development path followed by DDA. The groundwater level in these villages have gone down alarmingly i.e by almost a 100 feet in last 10 years and at the same time it has turned so saline that it is almost unusable. The villagers also brought figures of salinity in many of these villages. The villagers complained to the Vice Chairman that it is unjust at part of DDA to give filtered water supply to Dwarka, whereas, leaving the original denizens of this area, the villagers , at the mercy of tubewells giving salty poisonous waters. They demanded that filtered water supply first be made available to the villagers and only after that to Dwarka or any other colony.

Dwarka Forum was represented by :
PS Singh( Advocate), Convener           Ph : 9810282890
Diwan Singh                                         Ph : 9212061046
 
 
 
Dwarka Kshetra Gram Sangathan was represented by :
Raj Karan Kadian  (vill – Badu Sarai)   Ph : 9210379033
Suraj Bhan ( vill- Dhul Siras)                 Ph : 9312243978