In an order that will virtually reduce commercial and residential construction in Sukhna Lake’s catchment area to rubble, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday ordered demolition within three months the houses falling in the catchment area.
Coming forward to save the city’s pride Sukhna Lake, the High Court took the states of Punjab and Haryana to task by also imposing Rs 100 crore fine each on the respective State Government.
The Division Bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Harinder Singh Sidhu made it clear that the states of Punjab and Haryana will pay Rs 100 crores each as “exemplary, punitive or special damages” for the restoration of catchment area under the doctrine of ‘polluter pays’.
The Bench maintained that the amount is to be deposited with the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change “within three months from today”, and the same would be utilized for the restoration by framing statutory scheme and complete restoration work on an urgent basis.
Declaring as “illegal or unauthorized” all the commercial or residential and other structures, constructed in the catchment area falling in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh as defined in the map prepared by the Survey of India on September 21, 2004, the Bench ordered that same be demolished within three months from today.
The Bench has directed Punjab, Haryana and UT to “provide alternative sites” in Chandigarh’s close proximity to owners of buildings in the catchment area with approved building maps and also to pay Rs 25 lakh compensation each uniformly to them.
At the same time, the High Court also imposed a complete ban on the new construction in the catchment areas in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh delineated in the map, as well as in the Sukhna Wetland and Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary.
That is not all! The Bench has also ordered to initiate departmental action against the “erring” officials by setting up high power committees of officers, not below the rank of senior secretaries, and fix responsibility. Directions were issued to constitute a special investigation team (SIT) to find out who had given approval to construct illegal houses in the catchment area within three months.
The bench directed that disciplinary proceedings should be initiated against the serving or retired officers or officials for permitting unauthorized construction.
The Bench also declared ‘Naya Gaon Master Plan 2021’, notified on January 2, 2009, and ‘Shri Mata Mansa Devi Urban Complex’ development plan “illegal or void” to the extent that these maps or plans cover the areas depicted by Survey of India 2004 map.
A three-month deadline was also fixed for the UT, Punjab and Haryana to issue final notification declaring Sukhna Lake Wetland. At the same time, the Bench declared Sukhna Lake a “legal entity/legal person/juristic person/ juridicial person/moral person/artificial person having distinct persona with corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person”.
All citizens of Chandigarh declared “loco parentis” (means ‘in the place of a parent’ refers to the legal responsibility of a person or organization to take on some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent) as human face to save Sukhna Lake from extinction.