The Uttarakhand High Court has disposed off, not dismissed, the public interest litigation filed by Citizens For Green Doon (CFGD) against the planned development of Dehradun Smart City on tea garden estate.
The State Government has assured the High Court that the law will be followed strictly whenever the State will acquire the land. CFGD chief coordinator Dr Nitin Pandey said this while addressing the media here on Tuesday.
Pandey informed that in the PIl filed by the group in the High Court, the order passed by the Bench comprising Justice VK Bist and Justice UC Dhyani states that in their considered view the petition is premature at this stage. Whenever, the State Government will acquire the land, it is stated that the Government will follow the prevailing law.
He said, “It was reported in various newspapers that the PIl had been dismissed by the High Court whereas the case was disposed off.
According to the regulations, and Environmental Impact Assessment has to be carried out and forest clearance has to be taken from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change before the tea estate land is put to different use. The area selected by the authorities for the proposed Dehradun smart city project has thousands of trees and a rich fauna. The type of development planned will actually destroying the identity of Dehradun. The locals will not shift to the smart city and mostly people from outside the town will occupy this area after construction, it will also cause a sharp increase in pressure being faced by the city and its resources,” he said.