Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Friday agreed to break and remove 48,300 sq m of concrete pavement at Noida Park to make room for about 61% green cover at the half-complete memorial site for Dalit leaders.
But a Green Bench led by Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia on Friday chose to drive the bargain a notch higher by quoting the latest recommendation of its Central Empowered Committee (CEC) for 65% tree cover.
?We are agreeable to anything. Let us end this matter instead of dragging it on here. The Commonwealth Games is near, in October. The half-finished construction has become an eyesore, and if not completed soon will be cause for national shame,? senior advocate and Mayawati?s counsel KK Venugopal replied to the court.
The Bench has now asked the government to consider 65% green cover, excluding the surrounding boundary walls and remaining pavement, and 35% of concrete.
Any structural changes, however, can be made only after the Supreme Court lifts a stay on construction ordered on October 9, 2009. The ban came after the CEC reported that no prior environmental clearance was taken for the Rs 650-crore project.
An August 5 UP government affidavit by Director (Horticulture), NOIDA, B Prabhakar, says the state sees eye-to-eye with a ?suggestion? from the Supreme Court on July 30, 2010 to increase green plantation ?to 60%?.
?The UP government has re-planned the layout of the Noida Park and will be breaking and removing the existing paved area to the extent of 48,300 sq m approximately and converting the same into a green area with tree cover so that the total green area is about 61%,? the affidavit stated.
The government even names the species of the trees it intends to plant. ?We will have neem, lichi, mango… a large green canopy as per UP Forest Department norms,? Venugopal submitted.
In reply to a specific query from the Bench on the presence of water bodies in the park, Venugopal pointed to the map to show ?concrete? water tanks, complete with fountains, which would use treated water instead of ground water. Asked if birds would flock to concrete water tanks, Venugopal recounted from his own experience of keeping a ?water basin in his garden where the birds flock since morning?. ?What is done is done. The trees are gone. His (Venugopal?s) client says those trees will be replaced,? SC amicus curiae Harish Salve said.
But advocate Jayant Bhushan, representing the residents near the memorial site, chose not to agree. ?We want 100% green. Is it possible for everyone to waste tax payers money on a construction and cut 6,000 trees, and then later replace it with 6,000 saplings which will take another 30 years to grow,? Bhushan argued.