Mohali housing societies, JLPL projects, UT industrial area units violating wildlife norms

Four Punjab-based projects, namely construction of Group Housing commercial, residential, industrial sites in Sector 88-89 in Mohali; project of Medicity Phase-1 and Phase-2 in Mullanpur, New Chandigarh in Mohali; commercial project ‘The Palm’ in village Mullanpur Garibdas in Mohali; and Janta Land Promoters Ltd’s Galaxy Heights and Super Mega Mixed-Integrated Industrial Park in Sector 82, 83 and Sector 66A in Mohali.

Two projects in Chandigarh include one of commercial Berkeley Square by Berkeley Realtech Ltd and Godrej Eternia by Godrej Estate Developers Pvt Ltd in Phase-1, Industrial Area. In September this year, Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee (CPCC) had sealed the Berkeley Square for violating multiple environment norms. Later, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had set aside an order of the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), which had revoked environment clearance granted to the commercial firm.

“The audit department asked the UT Wildlife and Forest Department to submit the replies, relevant records despite knowing the fact that a detailed file related to these projects was seized by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on May 23 this year. The CBI had seized the file following the orders of UT Administrator Banwarlilal Purohit, who recommended a CBI probe to investigate the fudging of minutes of a State Wildlife Board meeting taken in 2022,” one of the sources said.

When contacted, Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF), UT, Tapish Chandra Nautiyal, said, “It is a complex issue.

According to an apex court judgment delivered in April the apex court had modified its order on eco-sensitive zones (ESZs) around national parks and wildlife sanctuaries but ruled that states/UTs should strictly adhere and follow the provisions contained in the office memorandum (OM) dated May 17, 2022 issued by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MEF&CC). That OM says that WCC is required for any mega projects coming within 10 km radius of national park and sanctuaries”.

During the audit inspection, the audit team observed that a proposal was sent to Ministry of Environment and Forest, New Delhi, for the clearance of all six projects in 2017. The response from the central ministry is still pending. “The UT Forest and Wildlife Department should inform the DAG of the steps that were taken to procure the clearance from the ministry. Along with that, the department should submit a list of projects, which were allotted the WCCs and projects against which WCCs were rejected,” noted the audit team.