Ganga Receives First Legal Notice After Getting Human Status
PTI
April
29, 2017, 7:42 pm
April
29, 2017, 7:42 pm
After
being accorded human status recently, river Ganga
received its first legal notice from the Uttarakhand
High Court today asking it to explain why its land was
given for construction of a trenching ground.
The
notice was issued by a division bench of the high court
comprising Justice VK Bisht and Justice Alok Singh on a
public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a Rishikesh
resident Swaroop Singh Pundir.
The
PIL said a trenching ground is being constructed in
village Khadri Khadag close to the banks of the holy
river in gross violation of law.
Pundir
claimed that the gram panchayat concerned allotted the
land to the local civic body without consulting the
villagers several years ago.
Issuing
a notice to Ganga, the Union government, central
pollution control board, state pollution control board
and the Rishikesh municipality, the court directed the
respondents to file a reply before May 8 when the matter
is slated for next hearing.
Officials
made custodians of the Ganga when it was granted human
status by the high court, including the chief secretary,
the advocate general and the director of Namami Gange
project, will respond to the legal notice on behalf of
the river.
The
Uttarakhand High Court had earlier this year accorded
the status of "living human entities" to the Ganga and
Yamuna rivers to help in their "preservation and
conservation".
Bestowing
human status on the sacred but highly polluted rivers
would, according to the court's order, amount to harming
a human being.
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