No construction in Aarey Colony till September 10, says NGT

The National Green Tribunal (NGT), western bench zone has ordered the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to not issue any no-objection certificate (NOC) for construction within Aarey Colony till September 10.

In February 2013, the chief conservator of forests (CCF) forwarded a proposal to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) which stated that areas less than 2 kms from Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) should be declared as eco-sensitive areas (ESA) and hence no construction can take place there. Another proposal arrived in May, 2015 by the CCF stating that the boundary must be increased from 2 kms to 4 kms. This year in March, Vanshakti NGO and Aarey Conservative Group filed another petition regarding the proposal made by the state government in 2013.

Talking with iamin, a member of the citizen group said, "There was a SC judgment in 1996 which ordered all the states to send a proposal of the buffer zones. We then filed a petition so that the new proposal be considered before any construction work begins."

According to the order given by NGT, assistant conservator of forest Sanjay Laske stated that no such activity will be allowed until the MoEF takes a decision. It further states that the CCF, director of Aarey Colony and BMC need to maintain status quo till the next hearing scheduled to be on September 10.

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