Acting on a plea against the compliance report that claimed there was no illegal construction at an ashram of jailed “godman” Asaram Bapu in Karol Bagh, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday directed the Delhi Government to respond within a week.
The tribunal had directed the Delhi Government, police and other authorities concerned in November last year to demolish all illegal constructions at Asaram’s ashram and submit a compliance report. Following which, a committee had filed its compliance report in January stating that there was no substantive change in detailing of the area of the disputed premises.
Sanjay Kumar had then sought direction for a fresh inspection of the ashram in a petition filed to the NGT. A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar directed the Arvind Kejriwal Government to respond to the objections by May 25, the next date of hearing.
Advocate Gaurav Bansal, appearing for petitioner, said that one of the important members (Independent Member), namely Sunita Narain, of the court appointed committee has not signed the compliance report. “The compliance report is silent on the status of the violations/illegal structures which were directed to be removed in compliance of the tribunal’s judgement,” he said.
Earlier, a committee constituted by the tribunal had informed it that the ashram in the ecologically-sensitive central ridge of the Capital had a “large number” of illegal constructions. The tribunal had constituted the committee comprising Delhi forest official Tarun Coomar, Union Forest Ministry official TC Nautiyal and environmentalist Narain to inspect part of the central ridge area. The committee, which had commissioned detailed survey of the premises, found that there were temporary as well as permanent structures which did not exist in the map of 1996.
The total area is indicated as 4,312 sq. yard along with the approach path of 350 ft approximately. The NGT had also asked the panel to comment whether there was any construction recently.