Warrants against 3 panel members

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 26

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued bailable warrants against three members of the expert committee constituted by it to assess the carrying capacity of Shimla hills for their unjustified absence from the court despite its specific orders.

The NGT headed by Justice Swantanter Kumar, in its order on February 22, issued the bailable warrants of Rs 25,000 against the three officials while once again directing all the eight members to appear before it on February 28. The warrants have been issued against Chairman of the Committee RD Dhiman, Principal Secretary, (Environment, Science and Technology); Sanchita Jindal, Director, Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, New Delhi; and Sandeep Sharma, Member, State Town Planner, State Town and Country Planning Department.

The warrants have been issued under the provisions of Section 19 (4) (a) of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 read with Order XVI Rule 10(3) and Section 151 of Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. The bailable warrants shall be executed through Superintendent of Police and Deputy Superintendent of Police of the concerned area and shall be executed on officers even if they are on leave.

“As already noticed in our earlier orders the report from pages 116 to 192 submitted to the tribunal are not signed by any of the members of the committee,” the order reads. It was pointed out by the court that some of the expert members from the statutory bodies had brought to the notice of the NGT that they had not read the report before it was filed. They also pointed out that the minutes of the last meeting of the expert committee held on August 9, 2016 were not even recorded and got signed from the members.

The members also told the court that they had raised certain objections, particularly in relation to construction in the green area and the possibility and preventive steps that should be taken for disaster management, particularly from the point of view of the sensitivity of Himalayan range and forests.

In fact, some of the members informed the NGT that they had prepared and submitted note with their views and recommendations which have not been mentioned or incorporated in the report that has been submitted to the tribunal.

The NGT expressed displeasure on the manner in which the proceedings of the committee had been conducted, deliberations recorded and objectives and conclusions drawn. “Some of the questions raised by the tribunal it its orders have not even been touched upon in the report. The primary purpose of the report was to find carrying capacity of the hills, scope for additional construction, sewage system, water supply, solid waste and other incidental aspects of these issues,” the court observed.

The NGT said before it passes any further directions, it must be pointed out that the HP government and this committee have already taken more than one-and-a-half years to submit the report which can hardly be relied upon for passing any appropriate directions and the final judgment.