Tribunal throws a spanner in Sardar Patel statue work

A week after the tribunal cracked the whip on Delhi builders ignoring environmental guidelines, its Pune bench has issued notices to the state administration and all parties involved in the Rs30-billion project and asked them to respond by May 8.

Ahmedabad: The National Green Tribunal handling environmental disputes has urgently sought the Gujarat government’s reply to tree-hug-gers’ allegations that it had flouted green norms while building the world’s tallest statue on an islet in the Narmada river near Vadodara.

A week after the tribunal cracked the whip on Delhi builders ignoring environmental guidelines, its Pune bench has issued notices to the state administration and all parties involved in the Rs30-billion project and asked them to respond by May 8.

The tribunal action followed a petition filed by a 10-member green brigade from Gujarat after the state authorities gave no ear to their complaints since the work on constructing a 182-metre colossus for Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, began two years ago. The petitioners told the tribunal that the construction for the Iron Man’s steel statue had been kicked off without carrying out any environment impact assessment study and obtaining a mandatory environment clearance certificate. They said that the gigantic edifice being built on a river-bed, just 3.2 km from a sanctuary in an eco-sensitive zone, would have a serious impact on the ecology and environment and affect the livelihood of poor people living downstream.

mahesh@khaleejtimes.com