NGT directs timely decision on unauthorised construction

NEW DELHI

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the member secretary of the National Capital Region Planning Board to make a decision within two months concerning a complaint about alleged unauthorised construction within the Sahibabad drain buffer zone.

The NGT was hearing a petition claiming that the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) was illicitly building a track for the Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) and a station beneath the Sahibabad drain in Ghaziabad. The petition contended that this unauthorised construction within the drain’s buffer zone had significantly altered the course of the drain on the Vaishali and Vasundhara sides.

A bench of NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava, judicial member Justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member A Senthil Vel noted that the tribunal, in its order passed in September last year, said that the issue of protection of the drain was under the oversight of a joint committee led by the member secretary of the NCR Planning Board. Therefore, the complaint should first be addressed by the committee. The bench, however, noted that the previous order did not specify a timeframe for reviewing the petitioner’s grievance.

It further pointed out that it was “difficult to draw any concrete conclusion” from the materials provided with the petition, suggesting that the allegations should be more appropriately assessed by the member secretary.

The NGT emphasised that its previous order had allowed construction to proceed “with all possible mitigation measures to ensure that there is no change in the natural course of the drain and no pollution load is added.”

“Meanwhile, we make it clear that the construction will continue, having due regard to the order earlier passed,” the tribunal stated.