New Delhi: The SC has rejected at the admission stage a writ seeking a direction to the Centre and AP to stop construction of the new capital city near Vijayawada as it has not obtained environmental clearance.
When a three-judge bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justices M.Y. Iqbal and Arun Mishra refused to entertain the petition counsel Prashant Bhushan and Sunil Mathews appearing for the petitioners, P. Srimannarayana of Vijayawada and Anthati Kamaloakar of Nellore, sought permission to withdraw the matter and permission to approach the national green tribunal. The Bench granted permission and the petition was withdrawn.
Mr Bhushan submitted that an expert committee constituted under the State Reorganisation Act in its report on August 27, 2014 had raised serious environmental concerns over the construction of the new capital. He said the committee had opposed the construction of the new capital at the present site taking into account geographic and seismic factors. The counsel said large areas of farmland would be used for urban development and this would affect farmers.
Building a super city without environment impact assessment study is not permissible and it would have serious repercussions. The counsel said that on December 30, 2014 the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority was notified for the purpose of planning, coordination and execution of the construction.
The CJI pointed out that environmental clearance was required only for large projects and not for acquisition of lands. He said, "When a capital city is built there will be some problems. These problems will be there wherever the capital city is built. The Supreme Court should not be saying to the government in which area the capital city must be built.
