Officers to report on Nahar compliance

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has asked officers of all concerned departments to be present in court to ascertain whether or not a 2014 order asking Nahar Amrit Shakti to observe all environmental laws in their 125-acre township at Chandivali has been complied with.

A division bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Riyaz Chagla was hearing a PIL filed by Prakash Agarwal, a resident of Chandivali, where the project is underway. According to the petitioner, the project was violating various environmental norms and the authorities were not taking cognisance of the same. He pointed out that the project had also not complied with earlier orders by chief justice Dr Manjula Chellur in a PIL decided in 2014. He said that this was clearly contempt of court and a huge loss to Mumbaikars.

In his petition, Mr Agarwal averred that nearly 10,000 trees had been axed to make way for the project and that the developer had not made good on its promise of planting 18,703 trees to replace the trees that had been felled. He said that a hillock located at the township site had been cut drastically.

However, senior advocate Milind Sathe, on behalf of Nahar, refuted the allegations.