HC reserves order on Rishikesh housing project

The Uttarakhand High Court today reserved its judgement in the controversial Rishikesh-based housing project case after the state government admitted that it was kept in the dark and thus withdrew all the incentives given to Citurgia Biochemical, a Mumbai-based company.

A division bench of the High Court comprising Justice Barin Ghosh and Justice V K Bist reserved the judgement after hearing the arguments from the government, Citurgia, petitioners and others.

During the arguments, Citurgia’s counsel pleaded before the court that the company wanted to revive the factory. But the Court rejected the plea on environmental grounds.

Last week, the government had withdrawn all the incentives given to Citurgia saying it was kept in the dark by the company in the matter related to revival scheme.

During the hearing yesterday, the court sought various details regarding the permission for land-use change. The court also heard the arguments of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in the matter.

During the arguments, the NGOs told the court that the government had set a wrong precedent by changing the land use pattern of the industry to facilitate a housing project in Rishikesh near river Ganga, which is in gross violation of the environmental norms and thus they sought CBI probe in the matter.

The government had so far maintained that it only followed the advice of the BIFR on the matter. The government last year accorded permission to Mumbai-based Citurgia Biochemical limited, which was producing chemical carbonate at its Rishikesh plant, to sell big chunk of its land to a private developer for constructing a housing project. A lockout was declared in the Citurgia factory in 2003 after it became sick and the matter was referred to the BIFR.

Though the government claimed that the permission for the housing project was accorded under a BIFR revival scheme, the opposition parties and NGOs had cast aspersions saying there is no permission for constructing a housing project along the river on environmental grounds.

The Citurgia company has so far maintained that it sold a part of the factory’s land to raise funds as part of the BIFR revival scheme.