Summary:
Shimla: Turning down the review application filed by the Himachal Pradesh government, the National Green Tribunal ( NGT ) continued the ban on the construction activity in the core and green areas falling within the jurisdiction of the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC). “If such unplanned and indiscriminate development is permitted, there will be irreparable loss and damage to the environment, ecology and natural resources on the one hand and inevitable disaster on the other,” the tribunal had observed in its earlier order.Sources within the state administration said that with the tribunal turning down review application, the government was now planning to challenge the order in the Supreme Court. Outside the municipal limits permission has been granted for the two-and-a-half storey construction only.NGT’s principal bench, headed by its chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, on Monday heard the matter and turned the review application down, thus allowing its November 16, 2017, to remain effective.The application was filed seeking review of the order prohibiting construction activity of any kind — be it residential, commercial, institutional or otherwise — within three meters of the national highways in the entire state of Himachal Pradesh, but particularly in the Shimla planning area.Expressing its displeasure on the failure of the state government and local authorities to discharge their constitutional obligations under Article 48A; statutory duties under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; under the TCP Act; and municipal byelaws, the tribunal had also prohibited new construction of any kind henceforth in any part of the core and green/forest areas as defined under the various notifications.“It is this failure that has exposed the Shimla planning area to such vulnerability to natural and man-made disasters,” NGT said..