Adarsh stares at demolition as Govt declares the building illegal

The environment ministry has asked Adarsh society why the 31-storey building in Mumbai should not be demolished, but shied away from recommending action against Maharashtra government officials who turned a blind eye to the “blatant” violations. Chetan Chauhan reports. Three violations | Towering scandal

Updated on: Nov 13, 2010, 03:59:26 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The environment ministry has asked Adarsh society why the 31-storey building in Mumbai should not be demolished, but shied away from recommending action against Maharashtra government officials who turned a blind eye to the “blatant” violations.

The ministry on Friday declared the building illegal.

“We have asked why an unauthorised structure should not be removed,” environment minister Jairam Ramesh said. The building was ostensibly for families of Kargil war heroes, but families of politicians such as Ashok Chavan — who was removed as chief minister — and top military leaders got the flats instead. In return, the building was allowed construction in violation of norms.

Asked what action would be taken against officials involved, Ramesh said, ““What action can be taken in a democracy? You all know what happened”.

The Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority had issued a notice in November 2009 to Adarsh following a complaint by National Alliance of People’s Movement but closed the case when told that the approval to construct the building was granted by the urban development department.

“As per law, they (the authority) should had pursued the case to find whether CRZ approval was taken. But there was a lot of pressure on officials not to pursue it,” an official said.

Ramesh complimented the authority for issuing the notice.

The ministry found that the mandatory CRZ approval was not taken either from the state or central government.

The society has been given two weeks to submit a written reply and an additional week to make a personal appearance, if they desire.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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