NEERI report on Doon development missing: RTI

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, June 27

A report prepared by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to chalk out a development plan for Dehradun, based on its carrying capacity, has gone missing. This was revealed in an RTI filed by NGO Making a Difference by Being the Difference (MAD).

MAD president Abhijay Negi said NEERI of Nagpur was given a grant of Rs 1 crore to prepare the report in 1996.

“But our RTI query revealed that the 1,000-page report has gone missing. In this report, NEERI had undertaken painstaking efforts to identify areas in the Doon valley where development projects could proceed while also earmarking those areas where there was a need of environmental conservation,” said Negi.

He said while opposing the acquisition of the tea gardens for the smart city project, the NGO had cited heavily from the report. MAD sought to know the budget for the NEERI report and whether the authorities in question, namely the Union Ministry for Environment Forest and Climate Change, NEERI and the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA), were taking any steps to ensure the implementation of the report.

“It is in response to these queries that it was revealed that the report was prepared at a whopping budget of Rs 1 crore. The RTI responses received from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest and NEERI have revealed that the report is untraceable. NEERI, at best, could only share an executive summary of the report but could not trace it. However, it could provide the letter in which Rs 1 crore were sanctioned way back in 1992 for the purpose of preparing the report,” Negi added.