Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Bhopal residents, now may get relief after the Supreme Court on Monday set aside National Green Tribunal (NGT)’s bar On Auroville Township Project, stating that development is equally important as environment protection. In Bhopal, NGT’s central bench had stayed construction work within a range of 33-metres from Kaliyasot River in 2014.
NGT on April 22, 2024 took suo moto cognisance of the ongoing construction in periphery of Kaliyasot River and other reservoir of Kailyasot and Kerwa dam sites.
However, Bhopal is still waiting for Bhopal Master Plan which is pending from 2005.
Master Plan-2025 also provides for an open area of 33-metres from the edge of Kaliyasot and Kerwa reservoirs and reserves 150 hectares of land for a botanical garden or regional park around Kaliyasot and Kerwa reservoirs. Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) president Manoj Meek said, ‘We welcome the SC judgement as all civilisations are associated with rivers. The SC has rightly said that development is equally important as environment. It will give relief to Bhopal residents.’
Jai Narain Chaukse, Chancellor of LN Medical College, Kolar said, ‘The SC judgement is based on practical aspects.
How environment will be protected when there is no development. Development is must for survival of humans.
In Bhopal, NGT had created terror in mind of residents of Kolar over illegal constructions from Kaliyasot River for the last 15 years.’ Though it is true that precautionary principle and polluter are part of environmental law of the country, it is equally true that while the right to clean environment is a guaranteed fundamental right under Article 14 of the Constitution of India, the right to development equally claims priority under the fundamental rights, particularly under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.
Therefore, there is a need for sustainable development striking a golden balance between the right to development and the right to clean environment,’ SC Justice Bela Trivedi read out the judgement.
