Court Orders Review of Unauthorized Memorial in No Development Zone
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Nagpur, India- The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court questioned the high-level committee, led by the Divisional Commissioner, about their actions regarding the relocation of the illegally constructed Swami Vivekananda Smarak near Ambazari Lake in the No Development Zone. The court observed that the committee had not taken the situation seriously as they failed to provide a report on selecting a new location for the monument.
During a hearing, Justices Nitin Sambre and Abhay Mantri asked State Advocate General Dr. Birendra Saraf whether the State prioritizes preserving the monument or protecting citizens' lives, especially with the monsoon season approaching. They also demanded to know which officials allowed the unauthorized construction and inquired about the timeline for resolving the flooding issues.
The court insisted on accountability for permitting the illegal construction near Ambazari Lake and asked the officials for an explanation. Furious by the lack of progress, the court demanded a detailed plan for removing the monument and followed up on previous inquiries about the responsible officers. On May 8, the Divisional Commissioner and Dr. Saraf had been summoned to the hearing, where Dr. Saraf acknowledged the illegal construction and admitted that building within thirty meters of the lake was prohibited.
The Water Resources Department had previously stated in a 2018 affidavit that no construction was allowed within two hundred meters of the dam. The court questioned how the monument was built despite the No Development Zone status. This case was brought to court by a public interest petition filed by Satyanarayan Badrinarayan Jaju, Sumeet Satish Thakur, and Sanjay Pandharinath Dhoble, represented by Adv. Prashant Sathianathan.
The petition also highlighted unauthorized tree cutting near Ambazari Dam by the NMC, done without waiting for citizens' objections or obtaining proper permissions. Ambazari Lake is designated as a wetland, prompting the High Court to question the construction of the memorial and warn against endangering citizens' lives. In another public interest litigation about financial losses due to water seepage from shops near Ambazari Lake during heavy rains in September 2023, various demands were made. Adv. Tushar Mandlekar represented the petitioners, with Advocate General Dr. Birendra Saraf for the State, Adv. Ravi Sanyal for MPCB, Adv. Prashant Sathianathan for the petitioners, Adv. Gemini Casat for NMC, Adv. Girsh Kunte for NIT, and Adv. Jaideep Chandurkar for the Irrigation Department.
