KASAULI:The Society for Preservation of Kasauli and its Environs (SPOKE), the non-government organization that moved the National Green Tribunal against unauthorised constructions in Kasauli, has come under fire from hoteliers and the local people since the killing of assistant town and country planner, Shail Bala Sharma, during the May 1 demolition drive.
Brigadier (retd) WS Chaudhary, the 91-year-old vice-president of SPOKE – established in 1992 by BK Nehru with the sole objective of preserving Kasauli and nearby areas – told The Sunday Standard that it was not against anyone.
“We took up cases of illegal constructions in and around this small hill-station in 1994 and then moved Himachal Pradesh High Court. The then government demarcated the Kasauli Planning Area, which extended from Dharmapur to Kasauli and Parwanno, and all constructions were banned for a while,” he said.
“In 2005, we again approached the high court on illegal constructions that were going on. Again, the court banned them and asked the state government to create a development plan that would specify building norms. The state government then notified a development plan for Kasauli Planning Area in 2009.”
Chaudhary said five years later, in 2014, the issue snowballed again after the Himachal Pradesh tourism department planned to set up a five-star hotel in Kasauli Cantonment area. “We opposed this and took it up with then Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. He assured us it would not be done. Instead, the area would be developed into a park.
“But in 2015, they changed their stance and started the construction of Hotel Roscommon, which would have 42 rooms, restaurants, conference hall, tourist reception centre and museum (over 1.2 acres). Then our NGO moved the NGT. Construction was stayed in 2016.“We opposed the construction of this hotel due to insufficient water, lack of sewerage and sanitation facilities, small and congested roads leading the facility and no proper parking facilities,” Chaudhary said, stressing that the NGO was not against anyone.
On the NGT’s orders, a committee was formed which surveyed all 72 hotels in the area and found a lot of irregularities. On May 30 last year, the NGT passed an order for the demolition of unauthorised portions of hotels that were affecting the environment and imposed hefty fines on them. The owners of several hotels, resorts and guest houses in Kasauli then challenged the NGT order in the apex court.
Before hotels or resorts can go in for fresh construction, the local panchayats in Kasauli give NOCs.
Rajinder Sharma, the pardhan of Garkhal-Sanawar panchayat, said, “We have given NOCs to hotels as per which they have to clear their sewerage system, ensure proper sanitation and abide by all rules.... SPOKE has people who hardly live in Kasauli but have big bungalows in which, most of the time, servants live. They do not know the real problems faced by the local population.”