[Reader-list] Fwd: YJA - Letter for Dr E Sreedharan - Kindly forward

[Jeebesh]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan <yamunajiye at gmail.com>
> Date: 20 May 2009 4:43:15 PM GMT+05:30
> To: anuj at delhimetrorail.com
> Subject: YJA - Letter for Dr E Sreedharan - Kindly forward
>
> To,
>
> Dr E Sreedharan,
> MD
> DMRC
> New Delhi
>
> Dear Sir,
>
> Greetings from Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, which is a civil society  
> consortium of various NGOs and a large number of individuals who  
> have come together to work towards the revival of river Yamuna,  
> often termed as the life line river of Delhi, Vrindavan, Mathura and  
> Agra etc.
>
> Sir, this is in continuation of our recent letters to you and to  
> seek your attention with respect to your views carried regarding the  
> development of river Yamuna in Delhi, in today’s (20 May 2009) issue  
> of the Times of India.
>
> At the outset we are unable to understand the motivation of your  
> diatribe against a few so called environmentalists as expressed in  
> the said article. But if it is to try and justify post facto the  
> blatant, unethical, dangerous, risky and illegal encroachment onto  
> the river bed and flood plain that the DMRC has indulged in first at  
> Shastri Park and now in Yamuna Bank then we beg to find little merit  
> in your views.
>
> With the above as the context, allow us to differ with your basic  
> premise on what ails the river in Delhi although we endorse one of  
> your assessment and prescriptions as regards what needs to be done  
> with the drains that bring the city’s sewage and other waste into  
> the river.
>
> Sir, you may agree with us in that any developmental planning,  
> should first and foremost take fully into account the local  
> conditions of climate and the like. On this very count your  
> comparison of river Thames (London), Seine (Paris), Danube  
> (Budapest), Moskva (Moscow), Hudson (New York) and Han (Seoul) with  
> river Yamuna in Delhi is entirely misplaced. Kindly peruse the  
> enclosed chart of rainfall patterns averaged over 30 years (Source:  
> IMO) in the cities of Oxford (Thames), Vienna (Danube), Seine  
> (Paris) and Yamuna (Delhi) so as to understand as to why we contest  
> your basic premise of “why not train the river in Delhi when the  
> rivers in all great cities (as listed by you) have been jacketed and  
> trained in the past?”
>
> River Yamuna is a 1400 km river with a well pronounced flood plain,  
> frequent meander and a history of major floods, the latest of which  
> was in the year 2008, when almost the entire available flood plain  
> in the city went under deep waters. We hope that you would not  
> contest our stand that any land use planning should always be  
> appropriate. So how can a flood plain whose basic purpose is to let  
> the flood waters spread, percolate down to become ground water and  
> to convey the remaining safely downstream be thought of as being fit  
> for a real estate development as proposed in your views.
>
> Sir, you may be aware that what you propose today has already been  
> considered with even the CWPRS conducting a study as part of MPD  
> 2001, but it was a well considered decision of the government  
> consequent to state sponsored studies that rejected it as being  
> unviable.
>
> Sir, we are fully aware of your position and the authority that your  
> words carry and hence would be extremely happy to share with you the  
> information available with us that clearly establishes that what you  
> propose is not only fraught with danger but would compromise  
> irreversibly the critical role that the remaining flood plain in the  
> city plays in enriching the ground water annually during the monsoon  
> months and meets a significant amount of water supplies to this  
> parched city. Please remember that your own DMRC complex subsist on  
> ground water extracted from the very flood plain that your plan  
> threatens to alter irreversibly. We of course desist ourselves from  
> responding to your views on the Games Village, Metro complexes,  
> Akshardham and the like raised in the river bed as the same is  
> presently sub judice at the High Court and the Supreme Court.
>
> We are hopeful that you would be able to find some time for us from  
> your very busy schedule to enable us to present this and more in  
> person to your honour.
>
> Warm regards,
>
> Manoj Misra
> Convenor
> Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan
>
> -- 
> www.yamunajiyeabhiyaan.blogspot.com