Discrimination will not work

Lawyer Y P Singh asks if department will take action against other builders as well who have exploited norms

Most people have welcomed the decision of the Union Environment Ministry to demolish the Adarsh building.

But activist lawyer Y P Singh feels the order does not mean much unless the government fixes responsibilities of officers of the state environment department for their acts.

"A specific complaint was made by the National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM) regarding the building with the Environment Department in 2008.
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They could have easily taken action then but they did not use their statutory powersu00a0 to stop the construction of the building," said Singh.

He said that Valsa Nair Singh was the secretary of the Environment Department that time and all she did was to merely call for papers.

"Under Section 17 of the Environment Protection Act, the head of the department is liable for action," he said.

Singh also said he wanted to know whether the Environment Ministry would take a similar action against those 13 builders who have constructed huge commercial complexes in the city without environment clearances.
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The Maharashtra State Pollution Control Board (MPSCB) had issued notices to all of them.
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"Will they adopt the same yardstick against Lavasa and the residential buildings of the two top industrialists in the city?" asked Singh.

If such action is not taken then the promoters of Adarsh can complain about discrimination, said Singh.

An official from the Environment Department said, "The fact of the matter is that the complaint of the NAPM was not made to the Environment Department but only a copy of the complaint was marked to us.

Despite that, we sent a show cause notice and the society had replied that it had received clearances from the Urban Development department."

The official also pointed out that three options were part of the report presented to the Environment Ministry and the Ministry chose the option of demolition.