High Court forces Maharashtra to take credible action against Lavasa

Environment ministry to pass order on Lavasa's application for environmental clearance in three weeks

Published on:

22 Oct 2011, 2:16 pm

After being pulled up by the Bombay High Court, the Maharashtra government assured the court on October 20 that “credible action” will be taken against Lavasa Corporation Limited (LCL) for violating environmental laws. The company is developing Lavasa city near Pune, which is India’s first planned hill city post Independence. The state government told the court that action will be taken within two weeks, following which, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) could reconsider its earlier order.

The five pre-conditions for environmental clearance

Credible action by government of Maharashtra under Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
Submission of a written commitment by Lavasa Corporation Limited (LCL) in the form of a resolution by the Board of Directors of the company that violations of Environmental (Protection) Act, shall not be repeated
The scale and intensity of development of the hill town shall be as per Hill Station Regulations and shall be revised based on developable/buildable area. A clear demarcation of “no development/construction zone/area” shall be identified comprising (a) all water bodies, (b) forest lands/forest like lands and (c) areas steeper than 1:3 The developable/buildable areas shall be verified through state government/director, town planning and the calculation of floor space index (FSI) shall be made accordingly. No development shall be taken in areas steeper than or equal to 1:3. The FSI calculations shall be worked out separately based on land use and shall not be averaged for calculation of FSI
At least 50 per cent of the total cost of the project shall be earmarked for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and item-wise details along with time bound action plan shall be prepared and submitted to the Ministry’s regional office at Bhopal. Implementation of such programme shall be, accordingly, in a time bound manner
LCL shall submit an undertaking/commitment to earmark necessary/adequate funds as per report to be submitted shortly regarding the quantum of penalty/recompense and creation of environmental restoration fund

The five pre-conditions for environmental clearance

environmental clearance