Delhi’s ridge board to rule on projects without independent members

The Ridge Management Board (RMB), headed by the chief secretary, was formed in 1995 on the directions of the apex court, to preserve the Ridge. It has scheduled a meeting on September 18 to discuss at least 10 projects that will affect the Ridge.

The fate of at least 10 major infrastructure projects that will directly affect the city’s Ridge— the green lungs of the national capital — is likely to be decided by the Supreme Court-mandated Ridge Management Board (RMB), on Friday without its two independent expert members present.

Sanjay Van forest, a part of greater Delhi Ridge. (Sanchit Khanna/HT file photo)

The RMB, headed by the chief secretary, was formed in 1995 on the directions of the apex court, to preserve the Ridge. It has scheduled a meeting on September 18 to discuss at least 10 projects that will affect the Ridge.

The Ridge is the northern extension of the Aravalli Range, extending from Tughlaqabad in south-east to the north near Wazirabad, covering a distance of about 35km.The Delhi Ridge acts as the green lungs of the capital and, through various government orders over the years, all construction has been banned in the Ridge in an effort to preserve it.

While six of the eight members of the RMB are permanent, two are nominated environment experts who represent the public interest and ensure transparency in the functioning of the board.

Sunita Narain, director-general of environment NGO Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Vimlendu Jha, executive director of NGO Swechha, were nominated as the two independent expert members for a tenure of two years, which ended last March.

But since new independent experts are yet to be nominated, the board will meet on September 18, minus the two experts.

Officials privy to the RMB’s workings, said both Narain and Jha have been asked to attend the meeting as ‘special invitees’, but they refused on the grounds that the board needs to be reconstituted before any meeting can be scheduled.

They also confirmed that since Narain and Jha are not “nominated members” anymore, their opinions will not be binding on the board.

“The board technically has not been complete since March 2019. Both these experts have been invited as special guests and they can give their suggestions only as experts, but the board will be under no obligation to follow them. However, if they were attending as members, their votes could have swayed the fate of the projects discussed,” a senior government official, who did not wish to be identified, said.

The list of projects to be discussed includes permissions for the 22km Tughlakabad-Aerocity corridor of the Delhi Metro’s Phase 4, which has proposed four stations on Ridge land. The meeting agenda will also look into the proposal for the Delhi-Alwar corridor of the Regional Rapid Transit System, which will cross the Ridge area.

The meeting agenda also includes proposals for the construction of the campus of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, two skill centres and a new laboratory complex, all abutting the Ridge.

Documents accessed by Hindustan Times show that tenure of the last RMB expired last March , after which the board was not reconstituted. A senior official from the forest department, without wanting to be named, confirmed that a request for the reconstitution of the board was sent to the Delhi environment minister’s office in November 2018, but the proposal is still awaiting a clearance.

“The proposal to renominate Narain and Jha was sent from our end but the file is pending approval,” the official said.

Responding to HT’s query, environment minister Gopal Rai’s office Tuesday said “the file, with the names of the expert members, is in the process of being cleared”.

While both Narain and Jha refused to comment on the matter, Narain confirmed that she had written to the Delhi government that she will only attend the RMB meeting once the board has been reconstituted.

Environment activist Ravi Agarwal, a former member of the RMB for over 12 years, said the board was constituted to ensure that decisions taken by government agencies were transparent.

“It is illegal to have meetings of the RMB without all members present. The whole idea behind the board was to ensure public scrutiny, and independent members made that possible. Without them, the board is just an internal group headed by the chief secretary. Which junior official will ever go against the CS’s decision?” Agarwal said.