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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Environment Ministry's show-cause to Adarsh

Environment Ministry's show-cause to Adarsh

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published Published on Nov 13, 2010   modified Modified on Nov 13, 2010

For “blatant” violation of coastal zone norms

The controversial 31-storey Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai is facing demolition, as the Union Environment Ministry issued a show-cause on Friday for “blatant” violation of coastal zone norms.

The Society has two weeks to submit a written reply and a further week to meet Ministry officials and make its case.

The notice asked the promoters to explain “why the unauthorised structure should not be removed forthwith.”

“After three weeks, we will decide what further action will be taken … All options, except regularisation, are on the table,” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh stressed. He said he was personally against the idea of regularising the building, despite the fact that it had been done in other cases.

“I am in principle opposed to regularisation. It sends a very bad signal that people are free to go break the law, and then come present us with a fait accompli and then ask to be regularised.”

“Whole building illegal”

The Adarsh building is located in a coastal zone where a maximum of nine storeys are permitted. However, the Adarsh promoters never got a coastal zone clearance, from either the State or Central government, according to Mr. Ramesh. “It is a clear, categorical and unambiguous decision that Adarsh has violated Coastal Regulation Zone, 1991 norms … The whole building is illegal,” he said.

The Minister also made it clear that the dispute over the ownership of the land, on which Adarsh stands, was irrelevant so far as coastal zone violations were concerned. There had been a debate over whether the land belonged to the Maharashtra government or the Defence Ministry.

Adarsh has now come under the CBI scanner with an investigation into how senior officers from the armed forces, politicians and bureaucrats were allotted flats in a society meant for Kargil widows and martyrs' families. “We don't need a CBI probe to tell us whether CRZ 1991 was violated or not,” said Mr. Ramesh.

He complimented the Maharashtra coastal authority on issuing a show-cause to Adarsh as early as November 2009, but admitted that no follow-up action was taken. Maharashtra Environment Secretary Valsa Nair Singh told The Hindu that Adarsh had responded to the 2009 notice, claiming that it had clearances from the State Urban Development Department — which does not have the authority to issue any such clearance.

“The Maharashtra coastal authority knew what was happening, but they are living in a larger situation,” said Mr. Ramesh. “If you are asking me if CRZ 1991 was enforced strictly, of course the answer is ‘no'. We turned our head aside,” he admitted, adding the new CRZ norms, due to be notified later this year, would allow better enforcement and help prevent the Ministry catch “future Adarshs without any help from the media.”


The Hindu, 13 November, 2010, http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/13/stories/2010111362921000.htm


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