New Delhi [India], August 31 (ANI): The Principal Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), comprising Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi (Judicial Member) and Dr. Afroz Ahmad (Expert Member), held a listening to within the matter pertaining to unlawful encroachments and floodplain administration alongside the Rispana river in Dehradun.
During the listening to, the Tribunal reviewed compliance studies submitted by a number of state departments, together with the Uttarakhand State Pollution Control Board, Pey Jal Nigam, Irrigation Department, and an affidavit filed by the Chief Secretary of the Government of Uttarakhand.
The affidavit detailed the extent of encroachments throughout varied jurisdictions. Within the Dehradun Municipal Corporation limits, 89 encroachments had been recognized, of which 69 had been eliminated, whereas 20 had been discovered to have existed previous to March 11, 2016.
In the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority’s jurisdiction, 413 encroachments had been recorded, with 66 eliminated and 347 predating March 2016.
The Mussoorie Nagar Palika Parishad reported the removing of 10 encroachments, whereas two had been longstanding. Additionally, the district administration recognized 11 encroachments on non-ZA land, eradicating 5 and noting that six had existed earlier than March 2016.
The affidavit additionally talked about {that a} remaining notification for the demarcation of the Rispana river floodplain had been issued in May 2025. However, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) raised considerations in regards to the adequacy of the state’s submissions.
Specifically, the NMCG identified that the paperwork failed to obviously delineate the floodplain’s extent throughout totally different return periods–namely, 5, 25, and 100 years–and didn’t specify which buildings fell inside these zones.
The Tribunal famous that the legality of constructions alongside the river would hinge on a number of components, together with whether or not the land was public or non-public, whether or not statutory permissions had been obtained, and whether or not the buildings posed ecological dangers or impeded the river’s pure stream.
In response, the NGT directed the State of Uttarakhand and its related departments to furnish the required data to the NMCG inside three months. The Director General of the NMCG was instructed to provoke motion underneath Section 6(3) of the River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) Authorities Order, 2016, inside six months.
Furthermore, the Tribunal mandated that respondents submit Action Taken Reports inside the prescribed timelines. The matter has been scheduled for the subsequent listening to on December 22, 2025. In the interim, the Tribunal’s earlier order dated December 16, 2024, will stay in abeyance.
The current order has been circulated to all key stakeholders, together with the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand and the Director General of the NMCG, to make sure compliance, it acknowledged. (ANI)