The Maharashtra government is likely to file an environmental violation case against Hindustan Construction Company?s (HCC) Lavasa Lake City project in a Pune court on Tuesday.
On Monday, agencies quoted state environment minister Sanjay Devtale saying, ?We are preparing documents to file a case against Lavasa Corporation for violating the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Most probably, we will file a case against the company tomorrow.? The minister said that a detailed report would be sent to the environment ministry after filing a case against the company.
However, the case appears weak since the state government has been asked by the Centre to proceed against Lavasa on grounds of violations under the EIA (environmental impact assessment) Notification, 2006. Lavasa had earlier contested that the provisions of the notification did not apply to its project. In a reply to the MoEF?s show-cause notice in November, Lavasa said: ?the EIA Notification dated September 14, 2006 would be attracted to existing projects only if there is an expansion or modernisation of existing projects or activities entailing capacity addition with change in process and/or technology.?
On Friday, an Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) set up by the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) had recommended conditional approval to Lavasa Corporation.
Last week, the MoEF wrote to the Department of Environment of the Maharashtra government asking it to take action against Lavasa for undertaking illegal construction while building the first phase of the hill town project. The letter read, ?During the process of appraisal and also based on the site visit by the committee headed by Naresh Dayal, it was found that construction/developments in 681 hectares area were in progress without obtaining prior environment clearance under the EIA Notification, 2006.? The ministry also noted that it had issued show-cause notices on November 25 last year and ?final directions? on January 17 this year.
In November last year, Lavasa Corporation had challenged a show-cause notice and stop-work order issued by MoEF in the Bombay High Court. The ministry said Lavasa failed to secure the necessary environmental clearances before starting work on its 5,000-plus hectare Lake City project coming up in the Mulshi sub-district of Pune district, around 200 km from Mumbai.
The Maharashtra government?s action comes even as the environment ministry is preparing to state its decision on the Phase-I of the controversial project on June 15, when the matter comes up in the Bombay High Court.