ET reports a rather unfortunate move by the Environment Ministry of approving Lavasa Corporation's hill township project, even though the construction is unauthorized and is in grave violation of Environmental Laws. The terms and conditions imposed on Lavasa include the payment of substantial penalty for violating environmental norms and the setting up of an independent environment restoration fund.
Trident (Legal Firm) takes its readers back to the genesis of the controversy.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests issued a show cause notice dated 25.11.2010 under Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act for violating the provisions of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) 1994 as amended in 2004 & 2006 to Lavasa Corporation Ltd. The original show cause is available here.
The notification as originally stood introduced environment clearance by the State or the Central Government and imposed restrictions and prohibitions on the expansion and modernization of any activity or undertaking of new projects. In 2004 , new construction projects were brought within the ambit of the notification and construction projects which were undertaken without obtaining the clearance under the original notification and where construction work had not come up to the plinth level, required approval with effect from 7th July 2004. Also in the same notification new industrial estates which were undertaken without a clearance or where work did not commence or where the expenditure did not exceed 25% of the total sanctioned costs were also brought within the ambit of the notification .
A 2006 notification superseded the earlier notifications of 1996 and the corrigendum of 2004,
Genesis of the Controversy.
In 2010, July, on a complaint by the National Alliance of People Movement, the ministry of environment and forest asked the secretary to the environment department, Maharashtra to send a complete details about the project.
In about 2010, August secretary to the environment department, Maharashtra replied with the following findings.
It is to be noted that it transpires from the show cause notice under reference that way back in the year 2005 the ministry of environment and forest had written a letter to the Secretary (environment) , govt.of Maharashtra , informing them that the project will attract the provisions of the 1994 & 2004 notification and also asked him to follow the environmental clearence process , before the project could be taken up for implementation.
(a) A provisional No Objection Certificate was issued to Lake City Corporation, by the department of environment, government of maharashtra to develop a hill station at Pune.
(b) The Provisional NOC was converted into a final Environmental Clearance Certificate on the 18.03.2004, limited to an area of 2000 hectares as permitted by the Urban Development Department.
(c) No environmental clearance was required for this project under the 1994 EIA notification, by the Ministry of environment and forest, but by the state govt, the reason being that the height of the Lake City Project was between 640 mts - 900 mts (less than 100mts)
(d) When the 1994 notification was amended by the 2004 notification, the project proponnent had incurred an expenditure of Rs 115.20 crores out of the total project cost of 2153 Crores (about 5.33%) of the total cost.
Subsequently by an order dated 20.09.2010 the Ministry of Environment and Forest directed the secretary,
environment department, Maharashtra to conduct a re-investigation and pending such re-investigation an environment clearance to the project shall not be issued to the project submitted by Lavasa.
Show Cause
In the backdrop of such event vide a notice dates 25.11.2010, Lavasa was asked to show cause with repect to the following,
(a) Construction having been made above 1000mts and as per the collectors report, about 47 hectares of land is above 1000mts.
(b)The total investment was only 5.33% of the total cost of the project, and no details were available as to how many buildings were above the plint level.
The effect of the show cause is that Lavasa's structure erected without any environmental clearence from 18.03.2004 to 14.09.2006 is under threat of demolition(s) from the environmental ministry, with a status quo (stop work order, November 25, 2010) operative against them.
Trident (Legal Firm) Comments
The Environmental Ministry's decision to consider the project on merits is probably guided by factors like the investment's made, rights of substantial number of house owners , generated employment etc, although the ministry has clearly stressed that the project violates environmental norms and has resulted in environmental degradation.The issue once again highlights the tussle between the central govt. and state govt. over jurisdiction.
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