On 29th December 2022, around 4:30 pm, the residents of E block heard a loud bang that was followed by a cloud of dust that engulfed the entire area. Many of the houses in the neighbourhood, especially E block, shook because of this event and the whole area was covered with a pall of dust.
The large overhead tank, 150 plus ft high, located in the area adjoining the DDA jungle park and facing the E 1-19 lane, had been brought down without any warning to anyone in the colony. The contractor shared that excavators were used to slowly break the pillars holding up the tank till the whole tank came crashing down. It appears however, based on the way the tank came crashing down, that explosives might have been used. We were informed that this demolition is part of a grand plan to remove all these old unutilized assets occupying valuable land that are also a potential hazard to life and material, were they to fall on their own.
This is not the end of the story. The JCB equipment arrived early morning two days later, waking up the lane residents and asking them to remove the parked cars. Now, that entire piece of land is swarming with excavators and labour, with hammering going on through the day, disturbing the residents. The objective is to level the land and remove all debris, which is likely to take close to a month to accomplish.
What was strange and sad is that the Society of the colony was not even informed about this event so that at least the directly impacted residents closer to the venue, many of them senior citizens, who could have protected themselves from the dust, had they known about it. The second concern was that this happened at a time when the Delhi air quality has been in the severe category and construction has been stopped by the Government. An act of adding so much pollution was therefore just not tenable, especially when the GRAP orders are in force. It must be noted that all this is happening in a protected monument area where no construction is permitted within 100 metres as per ASI ruling. Whilst the lesser mortals like residents have been facing a wrath of this ruling for the last many years, it seems that the same rule does not apply for authorities like the Delhi Jal Board. This matter was taken up on 8th January 2023 with Mr Bhardwaj, MLA and Mr Jakhar, MCD Councillor when the Managing Committee (MC) and residents met them in Panchshila Club. They were apologetic about not informing the Society. It seems the contractor started the work without even informing the DJB and they, in turn, could not inform the MC. It was agreed in the meeting that, in future, such information will be proactively shared.
A request has been made to them to install metal sheets to reduce the noise and pollution levels directly hitting the nearby residents. We are hopeful this will happen soon. Mr. Bharadwaj also informed the MC that there is a plan to install an underground tank in place of the demolished one, before the next summer hits. He believes that this would be a critical solution to help manage the water woes of colonies like ours.
by Vinit Taneja inputs from Ms Aradhana Vikram Singh resident of E 8 and Swati Shah
