BENGALURU: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday asked Mantri Techzone Pvt Ltd and Core Mind Software and Services Pvt Ltd to file a compliance report in terms of the directions passed in the judgement in May, 2016 regarding Bellandur lake.
The NGT also refused to move the case to the Karnataka High Court as sought in an impleading application by Rajya Sabha MP Kupendra Reddy and directed him to re-file his application.
In May last year, the tribunal had asked Mantri Developers to demolish the structures it had built violating the buffer zones around lakes and rajakaluves in Bengaluru. It had also imposed a whopping penalty of Rs 117 crore on the builder and told to restore three acres and 10 guntas. The tribunal had also quashed the environmental clearance given to the project.
The Lake Development Authority was directed to demolish all constructions including boundary walls falling in the buffer zone in respect of all water bodies in Bengaluru.
Furthermore, the Tribunal had also directed all sewage treatment plants to meet the revised standards notified by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)/Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).
The ‘Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board’ (BWSSB) has been directed to separately consider the water requirements during construction and operation phases. It was mandated that only treated sewage water could be used for construction purposes and this condition was directed to be included in the Environmental Clearance (EC).
In February 2017, the NGT had issued a suo motu show-cause notice to various state authorities such as the pollution control board and civic utilities as to why they should not be prosecuted under the Environment Protection Act. The state authorities, who have not filed their affidavits, have been granted two weeks time for the same.
Sridhar Pabbisetty, a civic activist said, “We do hope that by April 12, we will see enough action by the Government of Karnataka to reduce the suffering of the residents next to Bellandur and Varthur Lakes by committing to a timeline to all the recommendations of the Expert Committee. In addition, we hope the directions given by the NGT on May 2016 will be complied by the developers and the government agencies."