New year to see Agra ponds restored

VIJAY UPADHYAY
AGRA. Environmentalists of Agra may now have a reason to rejoice in the New Year. In a decision passed recently by the High Court of Uttar Pradesh, the Agra administration has been asked to restore more than 70 public ponds of Agra to their former state, demolishing almost 200 buildings in the process.
Giving an interim decision on a Public Interest Litigation filed by D.K. Joshi, the member of Supreme Court’s Monitoring Committee on Environment, on the illegal encroachment of public ponds by builders in Agra, the High Court has clearly directed the Agra administration to ensure that the public ponds, tanks etc. that are recorded in the revenue record, are “redeemed, restored and properly maintained” by the Agra authorities.
According to the Agra administration sources, if implemented per se, this order could result in the demolition of almost 200 buildings, many of them multistoried and several of them being used as government offices, that have been constructed on these ponds by unscrupulous builders by hoodwinking the authorities.
Talking to The Pioneer, Chandraprakash, Secretary, Agra Development Authority said that the Authority had received the court’s order and was going to implement that order irrespective of whether the building was being used for commercial or residential purpose. He said that the ADA had already begun survey of its properties in the town and if any property was found to have been constructed on a public pond, it shall be demolished and the pond restored in accordance to the court’s order.
The reaction of the Agra Municipal Commissioner was quite similar in nature when he was asked about his action on the order. According to Mr. Shyam Singh Yadav, Municipal Commissioner Agra, he was yet to receive a copy of the court order but he was aware of this order and would be calling a meeting of the Agra Municipal Board soon to discuss the Municipal Corporation’s action on buildings constructed on public ponds as most of these ponds mentioned in the PIL came in the municipal limits of the city under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation.
He confirmed that if it was found necessary in compliance of the court orders, the buildings constructed on such ponds shall be demolished without any prejudice to whether it was a government building or privately constructed complex.
He said that though it was difficult to give the exact figure of the buildings to be affected by this order, it would be nonetheless, a very large number, reaching in hundreds of buildings that will have to be demolished by the Agra Municipal Corporation.

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