Haryana seeks to ease curbs in Aravalis

NEWDELHI: Haryana has a simple plan to deal with buildings and other structures that have come up on so-called natural conservation zones(ncz): it will simply take these areas off the NCZ list.

The recommendation by the Haryana Town and Country Planning Department, in a meeting with district town planners and forest officials on Friday, has to be approved by the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB), though.

“The Regional Plan 2021 indicated which areas should be included in NCZ but the details of those areas need to be put down in the sub-regional plan. We asked Haryana to submit a report on these details. It’s been four years now. If they are saying constructions have come up in certain areas, it needs to be ascertained how and when they have come up. These are conservation priority areas where construction is not allowed,” an NCRPB official said on condition of anonymity.

Environmentalists are up in arms because the NCZ areas include Aravalis, lakes and water bodies, and forest areas in the state. The NCR Regional Plan 2021 defines NCZS and restricts construction in these to encourage their conservation but Haryana has reopened the discussion on the status of these areas.

It has directed district level authorities to conduct groundlevel inspections to find out the exact status of NCZS. Friday’s meeting discussed two categories of NCZS — confirmed NCZS and those areas whose status the Haryana government is yet to rule on. There’s no ambiguity on the direction of the state’s thinking. “We have discussed both categories and directed district level committees to submit their ground-truthing reports latest by January 31, 2019,” said Makarand Pandurang, director, Haryana Department of Town and Country Planning.