The Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal (NGT), which was listening to a petition from a Ghaziabad resident searching for a halt to the construction of the Regional Speedy Transit System (RRTS) undertaking in the Sahibabad drain’s buffer zone, refused to ban the construction actions and as an alternative ordered the member secretary of the Nationwide Capital Area Planning Board (NCRB) to hear the petitioner’s grievance.
NCRB is an authority beneath the central authorities’s Ministry of Housing and City Affairs that prepares and coordinates the enforcement and implementation of the regional improvement plan of NCR and the Nationwide Capital Territory of Delhi.
“We direct the NCR planning board’s member secretary to resolve the petitioner’s grievance raised in the illustration dated October 15, 2022, inside two months of receipt of a duplicate of this order. In the meantime, we make it clear that construction will proceed in accordance with the Tribunal’s earlier order in OA No. 624/2023,” NGT mentioned in its order on August 31.
“Because the subject of drain safety and guaranteeing free circulate is being overseen by a joint committee headed by NCRPB, the grievance, if any, could be first thought-about by the mentioned committee as an alternative of multiplying proceedings on the problem,” it added. In its order, the tribunal referred to its earlier order from September 26, which mentioned there needs to be no change in the drain’s pure course.
Sushil Raghav had petitioned the tribunal, claiming that the NCR transport company (NCRTC), the company executing the RRTS undertaking, was illegally developing railway tracks and a station beneath the Sahibabad drain and had utterly diverted the drain in the direction of Vaishali and Vasundhara. He mentioned NCRTC had illegally begun organising RRTS pillars and constructing tracks on the drain and buffer zone.
“The construction is being carried out in shut coordination with the native authorities after taking all mandatory approvals. Moreover, the drain can be restored to its authentic type after the construction is over,” an NCRTC spokesperson mentioned on Monday.
“I’ll submit my illustration to NCRPB, requesting demolition of the construction and imposing excessive environmental compensation prices. I’ll proceed to search authorized treatments to acquire appropriate instructions relating to such construction, whether or not made by non-public entities or authorities businesses,” mentioned Raghav, the petitioner.
On February 10, NGT issued an order on the same subject. It had directed Ghaziabad civic officers to restore town’s main Sahibabad drain as quickly as doable and make it freed from air pollution and encroachments inside six months.
The inexperienced courtroom dominated in Could 2022 that every one constructions, encroachments and coverings on the drain mattress had been unlawful. It had ordered these be demolished, no matter earlier permissions granted by the Ghaziabad municipal company. It had additionally introduced a 12-metre buffer zone from the sting of the Sahibabad drain in Ghaziabad.
The directions got in reference to greater than two dozen main corporations, lodges, eating places, developer websites, and showrooms which have encroached, constructed on, or lined the drain, which has an estimated common width of 50-60 ft and a each day discharge of 127 million litres.
The Could order was in response to a petition filed by Haji Arif, a resident of Sahibabad.