Letter to Hon'ble LG of Delhi - Reg. Land Grab _17 Nov 10_

YJA/CORRES/11/10
17 November 2010
Sri Tejendra Khanna,
Hon'ble Lt Governor of Delhi
Raj Niwas
DELHI
Sub: Sir, would you let be, under the cover of CWG, such brazen 'land grab' in
the river bed by an agency of the state itself ?
Respected Sir,
Greetings.
Please allow us to bring to your kind attention an admission by DTC of its clear intent of
disrespecting your orders under which the land in the river bed was allotted to the DTC
for temporary use for the period of the CWG 2010. It has now been a full month since
the CWG 2010
concluded.
To our query regarding the plans of the DTC regarding this bus depot post CWG 2010,
the response dated 16.11.2010 goes on to inform us:
"Planning for post Commonwealth Games are as under:
1. Area falling in Logistic X-ray screening Centre will be utilised by Transport Deptt. for
parking of cluster buses.
2. Remaining area is being divided into 4 parts for operation of 4 bus depots consisting
of 200 buses each for city and NCR operation".
In short DTC has clearly admitted that it has no intent whatsoever, to vacate the river
bed spread over 61 acres which was put in its possession under your honour's specific
orders with very stringent and specific conditions which included the vacation of the river
bed post CWG 2010.
This brazen admission of totally illegal, unauthorised, unethical and unjust, ill-intent by
the DTC leaves us wondering if there is any democratic space left for the civil society to
prevent such predatory take over of the common lands - like the river bed - by the
agencies of the state themselves? What value are your honour's words and
commitments? And if this is the state of respect accorded to your words by the agencies
of your own government then is the common citizen living in a state that is marked by
total lawlessness let loose by the state itself?

Such state of affairs make your honour's and all other leader's and officials - who wasted
no time in visiting the site of the building collapse in east Delhi - promises of bringing
the culprits of recent tragedy in east Delhi to book sound so very hollow and
meaningless? Does public safety and interest remain any concern of the state
functionaries anymore?
Sir, kindly pardon us for airing our frustration and helplessness in the manner above.
And yet we remain firm in our belief in your honour's sense of fairness and justice.
Please do not prove us wrong.
Warm regards,
Manoj Misra
Convener