THEY HELD countless demonstrations, several rallies and even an indefinite satyagraha against the Commonwealth Games Village on the Yamuna's riverbanks. To no avail, however, as the state government kept turning a blind eye. On Tuesday, they decided to take their message to the state assembly, where they felt top leaders would no longer be able to ignore them. They were wrong. For all their efforts, they simply landed behind bars for disrupting the House proceedings. Six environmental activists, part of the group that is protesting the "concretisation of the Yamuna floodplains", had carried their message to the assembly on the last day of the session. Sunil Prabhakar, an activist from Punjab who has parked himself at the Games Village site for the last 48 days, shouted in protest, interrupting a discussion on rainwater harvesting. "I could not stand it. On one hand they want to choke the river's flood- plains and threaten Delhi's groundwater potential, on the other hand they encourage rainwater harvesting. The whole thing sounded farcical," said Prabhakar As Prabhakar continued his protest and began chanting slogans, a security officer of the assembly promptly came up to him to stop him, following which there was a scuffle between the two, according to those present nearby As Prabhakar was being dragged out, another activist, Kapil Mishra, loudly began to argue the group's point of view. Thankfully, this time, some of the members listened. Opposition MLAs blamed the government for not "heedingthe river's cause". "We managed to convey our arguments by then," said Diwan Singh, member of the NGO Natural Heritage First. Both Prabhakar and Mishra were detained by the assembly security for misconduct. Delhi Assembly Secretary Sidhartha Rao was not available for comment, but as per the law these detentions take place for contempt of the House. avishek.dastidar@hindustantimes.com
