CUTTACK: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has constituted a joint committee to assess the impact of the proposed new campus of SCB Medical College and city riverfront development project to ensure that such works do not cause irreversible damage to floodplains of Mahanadi river in Cuttack.
The committee will comprise representatives of the Central Water Commission (CWC), nominees of MoEF&CC, CPCB, National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee and the State Pollution Control Board to consider the issue and lay down norms so as to ensure that the proposal for construction of the medical college and riverfront development takes place in accordance with law, without damage to floodplains of the river, the bench specified in its order.
The floodplain zones need to be identified and demarcated in the light of such norms, the order added.
The four-member bench of NGT headed by Chairperson Adarsh Kumar Goel issued the order on an application filed by one Dilip Kumar Samantaray seeking intervention against the proposed projects on land reclaimed from the river.
Advocate Sankar Prasad Pani argued for the petitioner while advocate Janmejaya Katikia appeared on behalf of the State government.
“In view of averments made by the applicant that the riverbed will be affected by setting up of the permanent constructions in floodplain area of the river, there is need to prevent irreversible damage to the riverine ecology by enforcing the applicable rules, if any”, the NGT bench said while disposing of the application recently.
“If there are no rules, appropriate norms need to be laid down considering such norms in other similar situations in consultation with the experts”, the bench also said.
The tribunal directed the committee to complete the exercise within four months while making the CPCB as nodal agency for compliance.
“We are also not aware of the legislative and administrative measures in the State on the subject of regulating and prohibiting activities in floodplain zones of the rivers, but such an exercise appears to be necessary to give effect to the precautionary principle of environmental law, required to be enforced,” the panel underscored.