Delhi Residents Hold Massive Torchlight March Demanding O-Zone Declassification

In a powerful display of public anger and solidarity, hundreds of residents representing 52 colonies in the Badarpur assembly constituency of New Delhi took to the streets on Sunday evening. Carrying burning torches, the demonstrators organized a massive 'Mashal Julus' (torchlight march) to protest against the restrictive 'O-Zone' classification of their residential areas. The protest, which began at the Chaukan Vatika in the Hari Nagar locality, was spearheaded by Resident Welfare Association (RWA) President Sarjeet Chaukan.

For years, the residents of these 52 colonies, spanning across areas near Kalindi Kunj, Mithapur, Jaitpur, and Badarpur, have been living under the shadow of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) guidelines regarding the Yamuna floodplains, designated as the 'O-Zone'. This environmental classification strictly prohibits any permanent construction, infrastructure development, or the legal registration of properties in the designated zone. Consequently, lakhs of citizens who purchased lands and built homes in these areas decades ago find themselves in a legal limbo, stripped of their property rights and basic civic amenities.

During the march, protestors raised passionate slogans against the local administration and the Delhi government, demanding immediate relief. Speaking at the rally, RWA President Sarjeet Chaukan highlighted the plight of the local population. He emphasized that these colonies are not temporary settlements but established neighborhoods where multiple generations have lived. The residents pay local taxes and possess identity cards, yet they are denied the right to register their properties or upgrade their homes.

'The O-zone classification has paralyzed our lives,' said one of the protestors. 'We cannot get home loans, we cannot sell our properties legally, and municipal authorities refuse to construct proper roads, drainage systems, or water pipelines citing the environmental restrictions. We are living in sub-human conditions in the heart of the national capital.'

The lack of developmental works has turned these highly populated colonies into civic nightmares, particularly during the monsoon season when waterlogging and poor sanitation trigger severe health crises. The protestors argued that while massive commercial developments and public infrastructure projects are often cleared near the riverfront, the poor and middle-class residents of these 52 colonies are being unfairly penalized in the name of environmental conservation.

The organizers of the march warned that this torchlight rally is just the beginning of a larger, coordinated movement. If the Delhi government and the central authorities fail to address their grievances and de-notify these inhabited areas from the 'O-Zone' category, the residents plan to launch an indefinite strike and boycott upcoming electoral processes. The demonstration concluded peacefully, but the message to the policymakers was clear: the citizens of Badarpur will no longer tolerate administrative neglect under the guise of ecological zoning.