By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 29 Aug: Demolition of the Super Tech Twin Towers on the orders of the Supreme Court, yesterday, built in Noida illegally reminds one of many such illegal constructions in Uttarakhand, in particular, Dehradun! It has been almost four years when the Uttarakhand High Court ordered complete demolition of illegal constructions in the state and encroachments, particularly in Dehradun. It may be recalled that in order to comply with the very strict blanket orders of the High Court, the Uttarakhand Government led by then Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat was forced to launch a drive against encroachments, particularly in the capital. However, soon after, the drive fizzled out on the pretext of being postponed for a later date in view of ‘inclement weather conditions’. The drive was never re-launched and the issue just evaporated.
Although, the High Court had also ordered identification of the officers in the District Administrations and Development Authorities like MDDA guilty of ignoring or permitting such illegal construction and taking strict action against them, this never really happened. No such exercise ever took off!
As a result, gross violation of urban bylaws and grossly illegal construction continues unabashedly in Uttarakhand, particularly in Dehradun and Nainital districts. Not only this, illegal quarrying of sand and stones also continues in areas that are not only seismically vulnerable but also in rivers and nearby. No one could care any less.
The Doon Valley is not only in the most vulnerable and sensitive zone of earthquakes, it is also environmentally very sensitive. Despite this, construction of multi-storey apartment buildings and commercial complexes has been allowed in areas that supposedly belong to the Nagar Nigam. Vast scale construction has been allowed or deliberately ignored on river beds and along streams and in catchment areas of rivers. Along the Mussoorie Diversion Road, most of the housing societies that have come up are in green foothills of the valley, where such construction should never have been allowed. Illegal mining and flattening of hillocks to level the land to pave the way for huge buildings has become a regular thing. A handful of such projects are stopped and illegal plotting demolished by the Mussoorie Dehra Development Authority, when such activities become a hot issue, but most such projects are clandestinely allowed to go on. All this happens in collusion with the top district level revenue officers and top MDDA officers.
It may be pertinent to point out here that some areas like Sarkhet in Maldevta, which have faced regular incidents of landslides and cloudburst have faced gross scale mining, leveling of hillocks and illegal constructions. One of the major reasons why Saura Saroli Bridge on River Song along Raipur-Thano Road caved in was gross scale mining in the river which led to the approach to this bridge being swept away. Raipur-Maldevta-Dwara area is a favourite spot for illegal mining. Every night one can witness scores of JCB machines digging in rivers Song and Bindal and adjoining streams and a large number of trucks carrying the quarried material like sand and stones. In the course of the day, these JCB machines simply disappear from public view
It is important to note that, in its order, the High Court had clarified that the category of land related to rivers, ponds and reservoirs was not changeable. Therefore, the question arises how all the multi-storey constructions have been erected right under the nose of the MDDA, the District Administration and Housing Department on the land categorised as river catchment and nullahs in Dehradun.
The High Court has also made it clear in no uncertain terms that construction is not permissible by flattening the hillocks in Dehradun. Even then, construction is being done by leveling the hillocks in all the foothill areas of the district including Bidhauli, Mussoorie Diversion Road, Maldevta area, etc.
In view of the sensitivity of the land here, bodies like the Geological Survey of India and the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology have been issuing warnings and recommendations from time to time on the geographical faultlines but the local administration has chosen to ignore such warnings.
It is worth mentioning that the number of pending cases of illegal construction in Dehradun has crossed 28 thousand. Those in which compounding is possible are being disposed of, some of the cases are being compounded in violation of the rules by the MDDA. It remains to be seen under such circumstances if the High Court again takes suo moto cognisance and issues notices to those concerned. Many believe that the Twin Towers’ demolition in Noida should be enough to wake the High Court as well as the authorities to initiate action!
