The Bombay High Court on Friday appointed a two-member committee to visit the Nahar Amrit Shakti Township, located in Chandivali, and inspect whether the developer has excavated a hill, cut trees, causing large-scale damage to the ecosystem there.
A division bench of Chief Justice Manjulla Chellur and Justice GS Kulkarni appointed the Secretary of the Maharashtra State Legal Aid Services Authority and a court receiver to visit the site and submit the compliance report before the court within six weeks.
The bench gave the directions while hearing a plea filed by developer Nahar Amrit Shakti seeking a two year extension to comply with the undertaking before the court in 2014, that it would maintain the ecology of the area by planting trees and ensuring that the topography of the area is preserved. However, a resident of sector 12 of the complex, Prakash Agarwal also filed his intervention application claiming that the township built on 175 acres of land is slowly becoming a concrete jungle. The developer, he claimed, has been excavating a nearby hill and cutting down trees, few years back there was even a landslide because of the ecological impact caused by this destruction.
However, the developer opposed the intervention application saying that he was a private person and has been influencing other residents of the town ship claiming that all the buildings would be demolished.
To this, the bench said, “We fail to understand the argument of the developer that intervener is a private person and has no locus standi in the case may be he is motivating the people to make them aware of what is happening in the surroundings.”
Additional Government Pleader Kavita Solanki, appearing for the government, submitted a development plan of the area showing the layout plan. To this, the court asked that when such a huge construction is proposed, whether the government monitored the progress or wait till the completion of it and only act when complaints of tree cutting or any others are received. It was informed that the corporation, while giving the occupation certificate, does inspection of the project and whether it is made out as per the submitted plans.
Source: DNA India
