RWAs to hold protest till they're heard on notification issue

New Delhi, Mar 30 (UNI) Resident Welfare Associations across the capital have decide to stage protests all over the city till the Supreme Court heard their case against issuance of yesterday's notification allowing of mixed land use in Delhi, and gave its order on the matter.

''We would approach the apex court to present our case and then leave it to the Court to decide the issue once and for all but till then we would continue our protests,'' Delhi Residents' Welfare Associations Joint Front President V C Tandon said.

''We do not accept the notification and demand its immediate withdrawal,'' he said.

It had decided that if the government did not immediately withhold/withdraw the notification, the joint front that represented millions of law abiding citizens would resort to ''direct action'' and protest meetings were being held, including that at Indian Gate, to start with, he added.

The RWAs were upset at being ignored before the government decided to issue the notification.

It was a move to circumvent the Supreme Court directions to seal/close all commercial estabilishments in residential areas of the city, he said.

Otherwise why would the government not follow the laid down rules of inviting 'public objections' before taking a decision, he added.

The capital's residents were also entitled to live in a 'healthy and clean' environment, Mr Tandon said and added that if mixed land use was allowed this could never happen.

Besides, the government itself had constituted the Tejinder Khanna committee to examine the issue in detail, least it could have done was to wait for the report of the high-level committee, Mr Tandon added.

''We urge the government not to resort to illegal and unlawful methods of legalising violations, which are blatantly illegal particularly in view of the fact that Delhi is aspiring to become a world-class city and will soon be hosting the Commonwealth Games,'' joint front Secretary Pankaj Agarwal said.

Moreover, the entire country was looking at the model of urban reforms being done in Delhi and the above would set up a wrong precedent, he added.

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