NHAI withdraws clearance petition from apex court
“The petition for exemption on linear projects will now be filed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. They filing it makes much more sense than us, as they are the nodal ministry. We are taking back the petition immediately clearing way for them to file it,” said a senior NHAI official.
The official further explained that they had filed two petitions. One was for amending the Forest Rights Act (FRA) removing any intervention from Gram Sabhas on diversion of forest land for linear projects and second was on delinking of environmental and forest clearances.
“The petition for amending FRA will automatically get cancelled, as the environment ministry has amended the act. The other petition will be withdrawn,” said the official.
The environment ministry has announced the amendment of the FRA this week. According to the amendment, Gram Sabhas in forest areas have been stripped of their power to approve or reject proposals for the diversion of their forest lands for building roads, transmission lines, canals or other linear projects.
The other order of delinking the environmental and forest clearances can only be allowed by the Supreme Court, as the two were linked by the court
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