Smriti Kak Ramachandran
Their protest against the Government’s move to convert site into Games Village continues
Just sit here and you realise that the breeze that blows here is incomparable, says 97-year-old former Delhi varsity professor
“Even illiterate farmers here know that this site, with its unusual ratio of sand and soil, is the most important recharge zone”
NEW DELHI: Dependent on the Yamuna for his livelihood is Chain Singh. Almost seven years ago when the Government took over his land, he could not even muster courage to protest, but grateful that he had some more land to cultivate, he moved on.
Now as history repeats itself and he stands to lose the rest of his land for the proposed Commonwealth Games Village, he is unwilling to let go and is ready to fight. The 28-year-old Shakarpur resident has been camping on the banks of the Yamuna for the past 11 days to save his land and the river. “This river sustains us. These flood plains that we cultivate fetch us bread. The Government snatched our lands, gave us no compensation and now is again robbing us of our livelihood. We’ll fight for the land and this river,” he says. Attached to the Yamuna emotionally is S. Prakash. A former professor of English at Delhi University, the 97-year-old has spent every minute of the past 11 days under a canopy watching over the land that will soon be taken over by construction and concrete. “Just sit here and you realise that the breeze that blows here is incomparable. This site is a national heritage and should not be sacrificed to please those who are hell bent on unleashing disaster in the city,” he cautions.
Committed to saving the Yamuna are scores of other people. Some from far ends of the country, sitting guard at the site chosen for the construction of the Games Village. These people are worried that the Government’s doggedness to build on the recharge zone will spell disaster for the city.
“This land that the Government first took over to construct the Akshardham Temple and now the Games Village is most fertile. It is this land that has ensured that Delhi, which relies so heavily on ground water, has not turned into a desert. Even the illiterate farmers here know that this site, with its unusual ratio of sand and soil is the most important recharge zone, but the Government seems completely oblivious to it,” said Gopal Singh a member of Tarun Bharat.
On Saturday when the sit-in at the site entered its 11th day, a massive jan sunvai was organised and campaigners fighting to save the Yamuna uprooted an iron pillar erected at the site to mark their protest. They are unwilling to call off their protest till the Government concedes and shifts the venue of Games Village to an alternate site.
“We don’t know what the outcome of this struggle will be. Our only concern is where will Delhi, which became the National Capital after Fathepur Sikri dried up, go if the river is replaced by a concrete jungle,” Mr Singh sums up.
