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    NGT directs MoEF for river policy report on Yamuna, Hindon

    Synopsis

    The National Green Tribunal on Wednesday directed the Union environment and forest ministry (MoEF) to present the expert committee report on the River Regulation Zone

    TNN
    (This story originally appeared in on May 21, 2015)
    NOIDA: The National Green Tribunal on Wednesday directed the Union environment and forest ministry (MoEF) to present the expert committee report on the River Regulation Zone while hearing a plea against encroachments on the floodplains of the Yamuna and Hindon.

    The tribunal told the government it wants the report by July 22, when it will hear the plea again. Justice UD Salvi observed that a delay by the MoEF in notifying the policy under the Environment Pro tection Act 1986 was the main reason why a judgment in the two-year-old case was getting delayed. The plea was filed in April 2013 by environmentalist Akash Vashishtha against concrete structures and farmhouses on the floodplains of the two rivers in three states -Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

    The River Regulation Zone is a central policy for the protection of rivers and their floodplains on the lines of the Coastal Regulation Zone. Professor Brij Gopal, who is draft ing the policy , said, “I have submitted the report with the MoEF . It was presented with the law ministry . They have sent it back with some formatting changes. No changes were suggested in substance of the policy. It should not take much time for the MoEF to correct and send it back to the law ministry for final enactment.“

    “Nearly 4,000 acre of land on the floodplains has been occupied illegally , much of it very close to the river's course,“ Vashishtha said, adding, “Concrete structures on a riverbed are prohibited only by rules laid down in master plans and zonal plans and by government policies.“

    Situated parallel to Noida sectors 94, 125, 126, 128 and 131, concrete structure, some just fenced plots, some houses, and some farmhouses, line the floodplains. The farmhouses are linked by paved roads lined with electric poles.

    “It is not a matter to protect the interests of a few hundred farmhouses,“ said Amit Khemka, the petitioner's counsel. “It is a matter of high priority for ecological and human safety as the condition of the floodplains here could affect the condition of the Yamuna river itself.“


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