By Azera Rahman, IANS
New Delhi : They are young, restless and raring to do something worthwhile. Whether it’s through popular social networking site Orkut or blogging, the Youth for Justice group of Delhi University (DU) is now determined to save the lifeline of the capital – the Yamuna river.
The group took a march in support of their cause from Jantar Mantar to the parliament Sunday.
Kapil Mishra, who passed out of Delhi School of Social Work (DSW) last year and is a coordinator of the Youth for Justice group, said that saving the Yamuna is much bigger an issue than just an environmental one.
“Saving the Yamuna is not just an environmental issue. It is an issue which affects us, the youth. It affects our future and the future of the country. Hence as citizens of the country it is our responsibility to do all we can to save the river,” Mishra told IANS.
Mishra along with more than 50 other students of the group has decided to join the Yamuna Satyagraha, an initiative of various NGOs and environmentalists to prevent any construction from taking place on the river’s floodplains.
One of the major constructions on the floodplains, the Commonwealth Games Village site, is being fiercely protested against by the environmentalists and by this group as well.
“We have planned a whole lot of marches and sensitisation campaigns in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and DU so as to motivate the students to join the cause.
“Although we have had only a handful of students in our first march, we plan to rope in at least 500 students on our second march, from Rajghat to the Commonwealth Village site near the Akshardham temple, Oct 2,” Mishra said.
The group is planning a march Monday from the DSW all the way around the university, and to every college, to sensitise the student community about the cause.
“We also sensitise students through Orkut (youth4justice) and through our blog (y4j.blogspot.com). These are the student hubs and we don’t want to leave any stone unturned to garner as much support as we can,” he said.
“It’s strange that on one hand the government talks about rain water harvesting and on the other, with all these constructions on the floodplain, is suffocating the river which is the lifeline of the city,” Mishra added.
The Yamuna Satyagrahis have listed a number of alternate sites where the Commonwealth Village can be shifted. Some of the choices are Safdarjung airport, Dwarka sector 23 and 25 and Jasola Sports Complex.
“We have also chalked out plans to visit 28 villages on the banks of the Yamuna in order to sensitise people there on the issue as well. As of now we have visited four villages but we hope to visit the rest very soon,” Mishra said.
The Youth for Justice group, with a core team of 15 members, most studying in DU presently and some ex-students, takes up issues in public interest and gathers support for it.
Earlier, they had gathered support from more than 500 students in the slain model Jessica Lal case and from about 100 students to raise awareness about farmers’ suicides in the country.