Hearing on a PIl filed by the Citizens For Green Doon (CFGD) group, the Uttarakhand High Court on Monday quashed the allocation of about 60 acres land to State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand ltd (SIIDCUl) in Vikasnagar, Dehradun and ordered that the land be returned to the Gram Sabha, said CFGD chief coordinator Dr Nitin Pandey. This land had been originally transferred to the Doon University in 2005 for constructing its building within a period of three years and later in 2013 it was allocated by the Revenue Department to SIIDCUl after which SIIDCUl had signed an MoU with Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt ltd for setting up of a bottling plant on the land, a move which had elicited strong opposition from Chharba residents, environmentalists and concerned citizens.
According to Pandey, the HC bench comprising Chief Justice Barin Ghosh and Justice VK Bisht ordered quashing of the GO transferring the land in Chharba to SIIDCUl and ordered that it be returned to the Gram Sabha. The former Gram Pradhan of Chharba, Rumi Ram, welcomed the decision of the HC stating that this was a victory of the people who had protested against injustice.
The PIl filed by CFGD had termed the allotment of land in Chharba village to SIIDCUl illegal, since the land was Gram Sabha land and only given to Doon University for setting up a campus in 2006. The petition pointed out that since Doon University did not use the land, it should have automatically been reverted to Gram Sabha and the Revenue Department had no right to allot it to SIIDCUl after seven years.
It will be recalled that following the MoU signed between SIIDCUl and Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt ltd last year for the Rs600 crore bottling plant at Chharba, a joint inspection by Forest Department, District administration and SIIDCUl officials had established that the 60 acres land marked for this purpose falls under the deemed forest category with more than 70,000 trees planted here by the department.
The Forest (Conservation) Act is applicable on this land and its utilisation for non-forestry purposes requires the permission of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The government had claimed that the Rs600 crore Coca Cola bottling plant would provide employment to about 1,000 people but the project was met with stiff opposition especially from the locals.