THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Administrative Reforms Commission chairman V.S. Achuthanandan on Friday urged the government to study the court verdict regularising the DLF Apartment Complex in detail and take immediate steps to go in for appeal. In a statement here the veteran leader said that it was understood that the positive comments made in favour of the violators in the affidavit filed by Union Environment Ministry had led to the verdict.
“If the Centre fails to rectify the mistake then the state government should take urgent steps to challenge the verdict. Since the area is on the banks of Vembanad Lake and affects the fishing community besides violating Coastal Regulation Act, the government is required to act urgently,” he added. He said the construction DLF comes within the CRZ rules. Under the Environment Protection Act such constructions cannot be regularised. A circular had been issued in 2010 to regularise the constructions that had violated the environment rules. However, this circular was scrapped by the National Green Tribunal.
At present the matter is before the Supreme Court and there was no stay on it yet which means unauthorised constructions could not be regularised even by paying Rs 1 crore fine, he added. Achuthanandan said as long as the High Court verdict on DLF remained, most unauthorised constructions would be regularised by paying fine. This would have far reaching consequences on the environment of the state. The government should go through the verdict in detail and take further action, he added.
