Centre flouted environment clearance criteria: AAP

Tree felling component in redevelopment plans for south Delhi

New Delhi: The Aam Admi Party on Wednesday accused the Central government of flouting all the basic environmental clearance criteria for its redevelopment plans for south Delhi and demanded scrapping or at least reconsideration of the project.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj told the media that a public hearing on the project was also not done which is otherwise mandatory by law for such a big project.

Bharadwaj showed documents related to the project in which the date of the public hearing for the Redevelopment of General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) Colony at Sarojini Nagar was "January 1, 1900, whereas the date of submission for the environment clearance was November 28, 2017".

Bharadwaj had a dig at the Central government for mentioning the date of the public hearing as January 1, 1900, saying it "must have been held in past life".  

"The projects are only called residential accommodation but a major part of it will be for commercial use, which includes a trade centre and a parking space for 86,000 cars." 

He said that the clearance for the projects was given by the Union Environment Ministry on June 12, despite the fact that the Central Ground Water Authority has written that the "ground water level of the area is over exploited".

"Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan is lying. It was his ministry that gave the clearance without looking into the traffic plan for the area and checking the impact of tree cutting on the air quality of the area which is already severe.  

There is no mention anywhere in the Environment Impact Assessment of the impact on the environment," said Bharadwaj.

In Sarojini Nagar, 11,000 trees were to be cut for the redevelopment project, whereas a total of 16,500 tree were to be cut for similar projects in south Delhi.