RLEK supports CM’s fight over Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone

Tribune News Service

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Dehradun, January 3

Padamshri Avadhash Kaushal, chairperson of the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), a voluntary organisation, has extended his support to Chief Minister Harish Rawat against the Central government’s move to declare Bhagirathi as an eco-sensitive zone. Rawat has announced to sit on a dharna against the Centre in New Delhi on January 5.

“We all support Chief Minister Harish Rawat. If the matter is not resolved in favour of the state, we will have no option than to take this battle to the court. We will file a Public Interest Litigation,” said Padamshri Avadhash Kaushal, chairperson of the RLEK, in a statement issued here today.

Kaushal said the state Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution on March 29, 2011, rejecting the Central Government’s move to declare 135-km area from Gaumukh to Uttarkashi as an eco-sensitive zone. The then Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishak wrote a letter to Jayanti Natrajan, Union Minister of State for Forest and Environment, asking her to withdraw the notification. Later in 2014, then Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna wrote to Veerappa Moily, then Union Minister for Environment and Forests to scrap the notification and expedite the hydropower projects stalled in the state.

Going ahead with the notification, the Centre meant to stall all developmental activities around the area, including 16 hydroelectric projects of 1,743 MW, that fall in the notified zone.

Kaushal said the state government was never keen on implementing the notification as they considered it anti-development. The political parties, including the Congress and the BJP, along with the support of locals, had come together to get the notification scrapped.

Kaushal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his Uttrakhand visit in 2014, said the state has a huge potential for hydropower and the BJP, after coming to power, would explore it. “The state is still waiting to see those promises being materialised. Vijay Bahuguna, now a member of the BJP, must support the hydropower projects and ask the BJP-led NDA Government to scrap the eco-sensitive zone tag. Otherwise, people will turn hostile towards the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections,” he added.

“People of the state were shocked when, in the name of eco-sensitive zone, the decision was taken to discontinue three hydropower projects, namely Loharinag Pala HEP (600 MW), Pala Maneri (480 MW) and Bhairon Ghati (381 MW). People of nearby areas had taken loans to purchase vehicles and other necessary equipment to provide services at the project sites. Some people had also constructed rooms that could be provided on rent to employees associated with the projects,” he added.