Stating that the much debated Tata Housing Development Company will have an adverse impact on Chandigarhs heritage,the Central government apprised the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday that till date no environmental clearance has been accorded to the project. An affidavit was filed by Surendra Kumar,Director,Northern Regional Office,Ministry of Environment and Forest,during the resumed hearing of a public interest litigation concerning the construction of Tata Camelot project. The PIL arises out of a suo motu notice taken by the High Court on a news item published by Newsline about a possible threat to Chandigarhs heritage if the project was allowed to come up. The stay over construction,creation of third party rights,including future rights in the said property will continue till April 6,the next date of hearing. Speaking for the division bench,Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi made it clear to the counsel appearing on behalf of Tata that no construction would be done till the adjudication of the PIL. In its reply,the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests submitted that a joint inspection was carried out at the site by a team of officers,including Santosh Kumar,Conservator of Forests,and the chief wildlife warden of UT forests department. Vehicular pollution and noise pollution will increase manifold which will definitely have adverse impact on the wildlife present in the adjoining Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary. Also,there will be extreme pressure on water,electricity and transport in this area due to the construction project of such a magnitude. The Ministry of Environment and Forests has not accorded environmental clearance to the housing project in question and,therefore,the project proponent cannot start any construction work at the site, the reply read. It also said since the project was located within 10-km periphery of the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary,the project proponent will have to obtain the clearance from the standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife as applicable in addition to environmental clearance before starting any work at the site. Placed on record by counsel for Central government Onkar Singh Batalvi,the reply added: So far as the environmental clearance to the project is concerned,it requires prior environmental clearance from the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA),Punjab. The case was discussed in the 23rd meeting of the Punjab State Expert Appraisal Committee held on June 6,2009. The committee had awarded the gold grading to the project and recommended the project to SEIAA for grant of environmental clearance subject to the condition that the project proponent will submit building plan approved by the competent authority. As the SEAC as well as SEIAA had become non-functional,the proposal was transferred to the Ministry of Environment and Forests,New Delhi,in July 2010,by SEAC,Punjab. It said: The proposal was discussed during the 93rd meeting of Expert Appraisal Committee and it had recommended the proposal for environmental clearance. However,no environmental clearance letter has been accorded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to the project in question so far.
