In the public interest litigation against location of a trenching ground on land adjoining the Ganga river without approval of the Gram Panchayat, the High Court of Uttarakhand had disposed of the case after receiving a submission from the Rishikesh municipal body’s advocate about conditional execution of the work in question.
In its order, the High Court has also directed that the urban local body will be able to set up the trenching ground only after securing no objection certificates from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and the pollution control board apart from organising a public hearing on the issue.
The High Court has also granted the petitioner the liberty to file a petition in the High Court again if the Rishikesh municipal council does not observe the court orders.
According to the case details, the Gram Pradhan of Khadri Khadak in Rishikesh, SS Pundeer had filed a public interest litigation in the High Court stating that while on the one hand funds and resources are being spent under the Namami Gange mission on the Ganga river by the Central Government, the State Government has provided about 10 acres of land on the banks of the Ganga for establishing a trenching ground.
The petitioner has stated that the land in question was allocated for the trenching ground without the approval of the Gram Panchayat.
The State Government had allocated this land for the trenching ground in 2015. The Gram Panchayat has been opposing this move of the State Government since then.
However, neither the State Government nor the Rishikesh municipality had done anything in this matter. The petitioner had further stated that preparations were being made for drafting of a detailed project report for `45 crore trenching ground project on the land.
On Monday, the matter was taken up for hearing before the division bench of Chief Justice KM Joseph and justice VK Bist.