Top court says no to multi-level car parking near Taj Mahal
Justice Lokur told the ASG the last time the court granted you permission to cut trees with a compensatory plan to plat over one-lakh trees.
New Delhi: “You (UP government) cannot get Taj Mahal again if it is destroyed. Let us look at the broader picture to protect it”, the Supreme Court observed on Monday.
It and refused to grant permission to the state to go ahead with the construction of multi-level car parking facility surrounding the historical monument.
The bench comprising justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta refused to accept the argument of additional solicitor-general Tushar Mehta for the state that if car parking was not allowed, then both international and domestic tourists would have walk more than a kilometre.
The bench told the ASG “You can’t get Taj again. As it is pollution in Agra is very high. We don’t want you to have an ad hoc measures. Have a long-term perspective to protect the monument. People should learn to walk. You don’t have a vision document for the protection of Taj. That’s the whole problem.”
Justice Lokur told the ASG the last time the court granted you permission to cut trees with a compensatory plan to plat over one-lakh trees.
“Now there is a report that 70 per cent of the saplings are not protected and only 30 per cent have survived,” the bench said.
The state filed Comprehensive Environmental Management and Action Plan for protection of the Taj Trapezium Zone Area including the historical monument Taj Mahal.