New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Wednesday criticised attempts to politicise and obstruct its efforts to clear encroachments on the drains leading to the Yamuna to prevent a repeat of this year's flooding.
Taking exception to a visit by local politicians to a jhuggi cluster in Barapulla, a day after the court heard a plea relating to demolition, a bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela wondered why the residents of 214 jhuggis were not rehabilitated as per govt policy.
"Why should someone go there and lead agitation and give speeches when the matter is in court? Local politicians will have to decide where the city has to go. We are exasperated. We also read newspapers and know who is going where and trying to obstruct court proceedings. Politicians coming there and claiming it will be stopped," the court lamented.
"Everything in the city has got politicised. When a matter is pending before court, one politician went and held a dharna there. The intent is not clean, the intent is to make use of it for political slugfest. They are your vote banks. Intent is to keep them living in miserable conditions. The city has come to a level that one is not bothered about it being drowned, but only about coming back to power," a furious Justice Manmohan observed, dealing with a batch of petitions, including one by residents of Madrasi Camp in the Old Barapullah Bridge area who face eviction as civic agencies found they are encroaching the Barapulla drain affecting the flow of storm water into the Yamuna.
"Such straightforward issues are being complicated...politicians ensure there is a fight over such issues. Water is not being allowed to reach Yamuna. If this is how Delhi will function, better to buy boats and prepare for flooding again," HC said.
The bench pointed out that if the project to remove the encroachments fails, the city would be flooded again. The intent of politicians is only to win elections and they are not concerned with ramping up the infrastructure, it rued.
Days after the residents of the slum cluster in southeast Delhi's Jangpura received eviction notices in Sept, functionaries of the ruling AAP and opposition BJP met them and promised support. They also blamed each other for the notices.
The judges underlined that "rather than a minister or someone leading a political agitation, the 214 jhuggi residents can be easily rehabilitated by the administration in five minutes if the intent and will is there". They expressed anguish that the intent "is there to ensure the problem and divide remains...this perpetuation of the problem is a business and some people thrive in it. That's how Delhi functions. Less said the better".
There is no will to do the work; therefore, the citizens are living in miserable conditions, it said, and asked the authorities, including Delhi Development Authority and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board, to mull over the rehabilitation.
The bench said the question was if the colony was impeding the water flow and made it clear that in case it was, the constructions had to go. "But we will ensure you are shifted to an alternate land. We will ask the authorities to rehabilitate you (residents). We will give you a right to rehabilitation," the bench said.