Free
press journal: Mumbai: Saturday, 20 December 2014.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday ordered an
independent inquiry to be set up to look into all the irrigation
irregularities.
A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by
Mayank Gandhi that seeks for an inquiry into sanctioning of dam projects in the
Konkan division, citing irregularities in the sanction of the under
construction Kondhane dam project over Ulhas river.
The petitioner alleged that Right to Information
(RTI) inquires revealed no clearances were sought from the environment and
archeological departments before the project began, even as 216 hectares of
forest would be affected and Kondhane Caves, a Nationally Protected Monument of
the Archaeological Survey of India, were located within the catchment area of
the dam.
According to the PIL, the construction of the dam
began without the permission of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF),
railway authorities and Archeological Survey of India, despite the fact that
large tract of forest land and monuments would be affected, and the dam was
close to a railway line.
The PIL alleges that no need-based study was
conducted, no impact assessment was made and no technical clearance of any
nature was done before or even after sanctioning the dam, adding that no proper
assessment of drinking water, irrigation water and water of industrial use
through the river basin of the Ulhas River had been done ever since the last
report of Chitale Commission in 1982, the recommendations of which are
completely flouted by this project.
A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice
A S Gadkari has allowed an independent inquiry in five dams mentioned in the
Chitale committee to stop payment to all the contractors and that no additional
work should take place after today.
Advocate General Sunil Manohar has sought time for
the state to file its reply in an affidavit. The next hearing is scheduled for
January 20.
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