NGT directs Delhi, Haryana governments to submit report

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal has directed the Delhi and Haryana governments to submit a report on whether Najafgarh jheel (lake) has been declared a water body.A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the states to submit the report through e-mail within a month.

The order came after NGO Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) claimed that even though two years have passed since the Haryana government assured the tribunal to declare the lake as water body, further steps have not been taken so as to check encroachments and constructions.

"In view of the above, we consider it necessary to obtain a status and action taken report from Government of NCT of Delhi as well as Government of Haryana. Such report may be furnished to the Tribunal by e-mail," the bench said. It directed that a copy of this order be sent to the chief secretaries of Haryana and Delhi though e-mail and asked the NGO to furnish a set of papers each to both the chief secretaries.

The NGO has sought direction to the Delhi and Haryana governments to declare Najafgarh lake, falling partly in Delhi and partly in Gurgaon in Haryana, as a water body/wetland. According to the applicant, there is serious threat to the water body on account of continuous encroachment and constructions in the submergence zone of the lake.

After claiming there was no natural lake in the Najafgarh area, the Haryana government had earlier taken a U-turn by telling the NGT that it had been accepted as a water body. INTACH had alleged that the large-scale construction work done in the floodplain of the Najafgarh nallah and the lake had drained the area. It had claimed that sectors 106, 107 and 108 of Gurgaon were being constructed in the "high flood level" area of the lake, while some construction was also going on in areas falling in Delhi.