Why NGT order should not be stayed, SC asks Centre

New Delhi, November 26

The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Centre’s response as to why it should not stay the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order clearing the ambitious Char Dham project, which proposes to provide all-weather connectivity to the four holy towns of Uttarakhand.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman and Navin Sinha said that the Centre should file its response in two weeks. The four towns of the hilly state to be connected by all-weather roads are: Yamnotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. Advocate Sanjay Parekh, appearing for the petitioner NGO — ‘Citizens for Green Doon’ — said that the NGT has cleared the project and set up a committee to oversee the project. To this, the bench said that the petitioner can go before the committee with its grievances.

Parekh said that if the project is allowed to go on then an irreversible damage will be done to the ecology which will be equal to damage done by 10 hydro power projects. He said the NGT of late had been allowing the projects to go on after constituting 15-20 committees to oversee the projects.

Parekh said the Centre was deliberately constructing the 900-km-long projects in bits and pieces to avoid the necessity of environmental clearances. He added that mountains in Uttarakhand are very fragile and if environment concerns are not taken care of then Kedarnath-type tragedy which took place in 2013, can happen again.

The Kedarnath area in the state had received unprecedented rainfall between June 14 and 17 in 2013 and the Chorabari lake there had collapsed due to cloudburst resulting in a major flash flood. Several roads, buildings and other structures were washed away and, according to the state government, the estimated death toll was around 10,000, with over 3,000 persons missing.

“We cannot stay the order without hearing the Centre. Notice on stay returnable in two weeks,” the bench said.

On September 26, the green tribunal had constituted a committee to monitor the ambitious project while giving its nod with some safeguards in view of the larger public interest and the country’s security in the construction of highway.

“We are of the view that all environmental concerns can be addressed by having a responsible and independent oversight mechanism which may monitor the environmental safeguards during the execution of this project,” the tribunal had said.

It had said that the statutory environmental impact assessment under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 was not required in view of exemption granted through notification dated August 22, 2013.

The tribunal constituted a committee headed by former Uttarakhand High Court Judge Justice U C Dhyani to oversee the implementation of Environment Management Plan (EMP) of the project. The NGT had directed the authorities to devise a mechanism to provide pedestrian pathways for devotees who undertake to do ‘padyatra’ to the religious places. —PTI

The petitioner NGO says

• The petitioner NGO said that the NGT has cleared the project and set up a committee to oversee the project.
• It said that if the project is allowed to go on then an irreversible damage will be done to the ecology which will be equal to damage done by 10 hydro power projects.
• The NGT of late has been allowing the projects to go on after constituting 15-20 committees to oversee the projects.
• The Centre was deliberately constructing the 900 km long projects in bits and pieces to avoid the necessity of environmental clearances.