HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday directed the Telangana government to file a counter affidavit explaining its stand on a petition filed challenging the decision of the state to indiscriminately cut more than 3000 trees in 390 acres of the sprawling KBR’s park for the proposed Strategic Road Development Project (SRDP).
Under the SRDP, multiple flyover bridges will be constructed to ease traffic congestion in the city, but some of the flyovers planned near KBR park would result in removal of thousands of trees. When the matter came up for hearing before the bench, the petitioner’s counsel pointed out that the state government has failed to file a counter in spite of a court direction earlier. In reply, Telangana advocate general K Ramkrishna Reddy submitted that a bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Chennai had ordered to maintain status quo in a similar petition filed before it.
Stating that environmentalist Purushottam Reddy who filed a petition before the court had also filed another plea before the NGT, the AG said that pursuing two remedies simultaneously before two forums for the same relief is not correct. Later, the bench said that it will first take up the case filed by Nag and sought a counter affidavit by govt.