Journalism of Courage
Rejects farmers plea to be witness,activists application to be complainant
Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) N T Ghadge on Thursday issued process against Lavasa Corporation Limited and its 14 promoters and officials and directed them to appear before the court on or before January 30,2012 and defend their action. The names include Lavasa Corporation Limiteds main promoter Ajit Gulabchand,directors Anuradha Jitendra Desai and Gautam Thapar.
Advocate P Narayan,the counsel for Lavasa,said the decision on whether to appeal against the order will be taken after receiving a copy of the order and discussing with his client.
The maximum punishment under section 15 is five-year imprisonment or fine of Rs 1 lakh or both.
MPCB regional director P K Mirashe is the complainant in the case.
Prior to issuing the order,the court had ordered MPCB to submit the entire file on Lavasa Corporation Limited prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to verify names of directors and the allegations.
The court,meanwhile,rejected the application by farmer Dnyaneshwar Shedge of Mugaon seeking permission to be a witness in the case claiming he had lost his land to Lavasa.
The second application was by Hemant Patil,who claims to be an environment activist. He had sought permission to be a complainant claiming his land in Dasave village was likely to be affected by the project.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) had asked the state,through a letter on June 10,to take action against Lavasa for alleged environmental violations in 681 hectares of the 2,000 hectare project in Mulshi taluka (Pune).
