LDA’s plea to reverse NGT order rejected

LUCKNOW:The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has rejected the Lucknow Development Authority’s appeal to reverse its order in which the tribunal had imposed a fine of Rs 5 crore on the development authority for illegal felling of trees for developing a township at Chak Gajaria farm.

Earlier this month, the NGT directed the LDA to deposit Rs 5 crore with the Central Pollution Control Board with interest of 12% per annum towards the loss of ecological services.

The amount would be utilised as part of the Environment Restitution Fund, added the NGT.

On November 1, the principal bench of the NGT, New Delhi, had imposed a fine of Rs 5 crore on the LDA for illegal felling of trees.

Thereafter, a high-powered committee of the state government headed by chief secretary Anup Chandra Pandey had recommended challenging the NGT’s order in the Supreme Court.

Chak Gajaria was a farm owned by the animal husbandry department of the UP government.

LDA V-C PN Singh stated that the development authority would decide further action after consulting the state government.

High court lawyer Prince Lenin, general secretary of ‘We The People’, a social organisation, had filed the petition in SC, which transferred the case to the NGT. In the order on November 1, the NGT had observed: “There has been damage to the forest without due process of law. Though LDA counsel claimed that permission was taken before felling of trees, no data has been furnished.”

“It is stated that 7,944 trees were felled after permission and amount of Rs 96 lakh was deposited towards the cost of trees. But this does not cover illegally felled trees,” the NGT said in its order on November 1, 2018.