NGT seek Centre, DDA's reply on plea against building bye-laws

The National Green Tribunal today sought responses from the Centre and DDA on a plea challenging government's decision to allegedly "dilute and exempt" prior environment clearance for buildings and construction projects through the latest model building bye-laws.
A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar issued notices to Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), Urban Development Ministry and Delhi Development Authority on the plea which alleged that model building bye-laws and unified building bye laws for Delhi of 2016 have been issued to "circumvent" the provisions of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2006.
The bench has fixed the matter for hearing on April 19.

The plea claimed that unified building bye laws for Delhi, as notified by DDA, were "illegal and liable to be set aside to the extent that the same provide for the exemption of environment clearance for building and construction of areas which are more than 20,000 sqm and less than 150,000 sq mtrs in the area of Delhi" under the authority's jurisdiction.
It alleged that the model building bye-laws "fail to provide a comprehensive framework for evaluation and monitoring of impact assessment of building construction activity."
The plea, filed by Society for Protection of Environment and Biodiversity, claimed that these bye-laws "seek to defeat and do away with the provisions of EIA notification 2006 relating to requirement of an environmental clearance by buildings and construction projects."

It alleged that the bye-laws would potentially destroy the environment and ecology due to unregulated buildings and constructions without any scientific assessment or evaluation of impacts of such constructions.
"It is the applicant's case that the bye laws 2016 do not provide for a comprehensive environment impact assessment mechanism and concerned urban local bodies/development authorities have no technical competence to evaluate, assess or monitor the environmental impact of such buildings and constructions, thereby subverting the EIA notification 2006," the plea, filed through advocates Sanjay Upadhyay and Salik Shafique
, said.