NGT order will not come in way of foundation ceremony: govt

Contrary to the speculation that the National Green Tribunal’s reported directive on Saturday will put spanner on the preparations for the foundation laying ceremony of new capital Amaravati, highly placed sources asserted that the ceremony will go as per the schedule on October 22.

“The tribunal did not issue any stay orders against the capital construction. In fact it refused to give interim orders to that effect,” highly placed sources in the Chief Minister’s Office told The Hindu on Saturday.

Earlier in May, the Tribunal issued notices to the Ministry of Forests and Environment, Andhra Pradesh and the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority for undertaking development work for the new capital city on the Krishna River bank without conducting appropriate environmental impact assessment.

But even then the Tribunal did not issue stay orders though it accepted the petition of appellants P. Srimannarayana and A.Kamalakar from Nellore for hearing. The petitioners raised concerns that the development of the new capital in the present manner may adversely impact the overall environment of the region and livelihood of local people. The Tribunal declined to intervene at this stage as sought by the petitioners, highly placed sources said.

Earlier in the day the State government was caught unawares when some media channels reported that the NGT prohibited even ground levelling work or any other activity till all the environmental clearances were issued even when the State Cabinet meeting was in progress.

Later, the government sources who went through the order clarified that the Tribunal only stated that construction work could not be taken up without environmental clearances. It was not a cause for worry as the government never had any intention of violating norms or starting construction activity without environmental clearances.

As per the existing law, prior environmental clearances were needed when the built up area exceeds 2 lakh sft. But on October 22, government will be laying only foundation, they said.

“As a government, we will not violate any rule. The buildings to be taken up for construction will have a plinth area far exceeding two lakh sft. Capital construction will commence only after obtaining due environmental clearances. We are confident that the clearances will come soon, even before October 22,” official sources said.

Capital construction only after environmental clearances, it says