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Journalism of Courage
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) of the Western region has dismissed a petition filed by Vadodara based environmental activists against Gujarat government’s ambitious ‘Statue of Unity’ project, demanding a stay on the construction of the project, claiming that it does not have environmental clearance.
The NGT, on Thursday, dismissed the petition based on the grounds of “limitation”, leaving it open to the petitioners to approach another competent court of law.
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The NGT dismissed the petition against Statue of Unity on grounds of limitation as the petitioners had approached the tribunal in March 2015, six months after the Gujarat government handed over the work order to L&T.
Rohit Prajapati, who is among the ten activist petitioners in the case said, “The tribunal said that although the case has merit, we should have approached the tribunal within six months after the foundation stone for the project was laid in October 2013. Our argument was that the clarity on the project was available only once the work order was given out, for us to ascertain environmental violations. We urged the tribunal to not set a precedent for environmental violations in such projects. The tribunal has left open the option for us to appeal in other competent courts and we will do so in due course.”
The construction for the 180-metre statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on an island in the middle of Narmada river started in November 2014.
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