MoEF changes stand, files affidavit quoting experts
Has Mayawati’s ambitious 33-hectare memorial park being built in Noida at a cost of over Rs 700 crore violated environmental guidelines? This vexed issue has seen the ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) file an affidavit in the Supreme Court on Tuesday quoting the opinion of various experts and conservation specialists that the presence of a large number of concrete statues built in proximity to the Okhla Bird Sanctuary will seriously endanger wildlife preservation and the biodiversity of the region.
This change of stance has raised the hackles of several environmentists who had taken the UP chief minister Mayawati to court on the grounds that the “90 per cent concretisation of the park” would adversely affect the bird sanctuary. The MoEF had at that point argued that given the size of the park, “no environmental clearance” would be required for this project.
The Supreme Court had ordered a stay on the construction even as the MoEF had argued to the contrary. A leading environmentalist group argues, “Does the MoEF change of stance reflect the changing political equations in UP?”
Sources close to the chief minister argue that with the Noida park almost complete, the Environmental Appraisal Committee looking into the matter will serve little purpose. “Is the UPA government going to order the destruction of a memorial project which has reached its last stages. Look at the kind of mileage the chief minister will get from such a move,” said a bureaucrat who is close to the chief minister. Mayawati’s government has also pointed out that it has spent over Rs 2 lakh crore on development and social welfare projects and “only one per cent of its budget has been spent on cosntruction of statutes.”
Mayawati had spent close to Rs 2,000 crore on various parks that she describes as memorials to Dalit leaders, including herself.
The Supreme Court had taken Mayawati to task on using taxpayers’ money for these memorials and last September had ordered construction at Lucknow memorials to stop.
A member of the Court Empowered Committee pointed out, “When 6000 trees were chopped in violation of the Forest Conservation Act, the ministry took no action.”
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