GURUGRAM/NEW DELHI: The Haryana government is still not ready to accept that the hill range in Faridabad and other districts, except Gurugram and Mewat , is part of the Aravalis , and would like to open up more areas in this eco-sensitive zone for construction activities. This, even after the National Capital Regional Planning Board ( NCRPB ), responding to an appeal by Haryana DTCP to the Union urban development ministry last month for reconsideration, rejected this stand, according to sources.While attending a meeting in Chandigarh on Saturday, attended by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and NCRPB officials, MoS (housing & urban affairs) Rao Inderjit Singh made it clear Aravalis need to be conserved. Yet, DTCP, which issues licences for real estate projects, has been pushing to have the restriction on construction beyond 0.5% in Aravalis removed. There have been reports of scores of builders and private investors who have already bought "gair mumkin pahar" land in Faridabad and Gurgaon for this purpose.Haryana has recently gone back on its consent, defining "gair mumkin pahar" and other land forms across the region as Aravalis. It had agreed to the need for redefinition only in December last year. On March 3, DTCP principal secretary Arun Kumar Gupta observed, "Haryana should consider Haryana Aravalis only in Gurgaon as per May 1992 notification," while participating in a meeting to take final view on the area categorised as "yet to be decided" ("gair mumkin pahar") under the Natural Conservation Zone (NCZ). The meeting was chaired by chief secretary D S Dhesi.TOI has a copy of the minutes of the meeting. It said the definition of Aravalis should not be extended beyond Gurgaon and Mewat, to Haryana districts not mentioned in the Aravali notification (1992). "Only areas of Gurgaon specified in the Aravali notification may be part of the confirmed NCZ, by virtue of being Aravali. Similar areas of other districts may be excluded from NCZ category," Gupta argued. The Aravali notification does not put a cap on non-forest activities if permission is granted by government. However, the NCZ specifications, notified in 2005 under the Regional Plan, restricts construction to 0.5%.Once before, in April, NCRPB had rejected the state government's demand to lift the cap on construction in Aravalis, saying the state's logic was not sustainable, as the restriction has been there since 2005. The government had then argued that since the NCRPB apex panel had approved the definition for identifying Aravalis to be on a par with the 1992 notification, there was no need to have restrictions on construction activities in "gair mumkin pahar" areas. Two months later (on June 15), DTCP again wrote to the Union urban development ministry saying, "We are of the firm view that MoEF notification dated May 7, 1992, should be followed completely, both in specification of areas that form part of the Aravali range, and in restrictions upon development and other activities therein."The department said areas specified in a table in the notification (Alwar in Rajasthan and Gurgaon in Haryana, including Mewat) should alone be considered as Aravali range. "For any area of Haryana to be considered part of NCZ by virtue of being Aravali, it must necessarily be part of the said table," the letter said. A second implication was that only processes and operations mentioned in the notification should be regulated, that too, only to the extent and manner stated in the notification. These include setting up of new industry, new mines, and construction of houses.

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