The NGT was hearing a plea claiming “vast-scale, mindless and indiscriminate concretisation or paving, which was the biggest cause of water-logging, urban flooding and loss of biodiversity in cities and towns.”
New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal has sought a reply from the Union Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change and others on a petition claiming “mindless” concretisation of roadsides and constructions in parks in Ghaziabad.
The NGT was hearing a plea claiming “vast-scale, mindless and indiscriminate concretisation or paving, which was the biggest cause of water-logging, urban flooding and loss of biodiversity in cities and towns.”
In a recent order, a bench of NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava said the plea raised a “substantial issue relating to compliance of environmental norms.”
The bench also comprising judicial member Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert member A Senthil Vel issued notice to the respondents and posted the matter on October 21 for further proceedings.
The respondents or parties in the matter include MOEF&CC, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA), Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam and others.
The petition filed by advocate Akash Vashishtha underlined that such concretisation and constructions in green spaces were “in gross contravention” of environmental rules, government guidelines and orders and verdicts of the tribunal.
Senior Advocate Sanjay Upadhyay, counsel for the petitioner, said that at present the menace of concretisation and complete paving of soft open areas, roadsides, road berms and constructions inside parks had become a hazard for all cities and towns.
“Innocent lives are lost by flooding of basements in Delhi and lawyers’ offices are inundated in Delhi due to concretisation of open soft areas,” he said.