RRZ rules to protect river beds: Jairam -Governance Now

RRZ rules to protect river beds: Jairam

Rivers like Yamuna have already seen a lot of construction on their river beds

Neha Sethi | January 7, 2011

The ministry of environment and forests is now "very seriously" considering the idea of a river regulation zone (RRZ), based on the existing coastal regulation zone (CRZ), environment and forest minister Jairam Ramesh said on Friday. The RRZ will regulate constructions in the river beds.

“Some civil society groups have given the idea of RRZ,” Ramesh said at a conference in New Delhi. He said that the country will be able to have RRZ in a few months “to protect our vanishing river beds.”

The minister said that this will protect the river beds from constructions on them, although some rivers like the Yamuna have already seen a lot of construction.

He said that the Akshardham temple was the first culprit to come up on the Yamuna river bed. “And then others followed,” he added.

"Akshardham didn't get the clearance. Akshardham didn't apply for the environmental clearance," Ramesh said. He said that what had been constructed couldn’t be demolished but the need was to protect the remaining river.

Manoj Misra, the convener of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan, one of the civil society groups that have been demanding a RRZ for a long time now said that this is a major breakthrough. “Even thoug the concept of RRZ came about in 2002, a lot of civil society groups have been demanding it since 2007,” he added.

Comments

Other News

Before India voted, the framers worried about the referee

“We are making a Constitution forever and not only for today.” Shibban Lal Saksena said this in the Constituent Assembly on June 15, 1949. He was warning that a ruling party might one day choose a loyalist to run India’s elections. Seventy-seven years later, the Supreme Court is wrestli

Delhi moves to real-time traffic management

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, has approved implementation of the ITMS Project by Delhi Police at an estimated cost of Rs.1,789.52 crore, inclusive of taxes. The project will cover 42 identified traffic corridors and will be implemented in three

MDR on UPI: Can sustainability come without weakening the network?

The extraordinary transaction volumes and value (₹29.82 Lakh crore in August 2026 alone) of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) have made it not only an Indian success story, but a global one. In 2024, UPI accounted for nearly 49% of the world’s real-time payment transaction volume, with more th

The Xi-Trump summit: The unending rivalry

Diplomacy is akin to an art, wherein the summitry, conflict resolution and negotiations form apt constituents of the entire context of deal making and “playing for keeps” in the international arena. The Xi-Trump summit in Washington last week, in which the American president broke all conside

“Indians, yet treated like outsiders”

Moving to Delhi-NCR for education can be an exciting experience for students from Northeast India. It gives us a chance to meet new people, experience a different culture and become more independent. But living away from home also comes with challenges that people who have not experienced them may not al

Import duty on major edible oils cut

The government has reduced the Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on major imported crude edible oils with a view to moderating domestic edible oil prices, providing relief to consumers and mitigating inflationary pressures arising from the sharp increase in international edible oil prices.