NGT asks Haryana, Delhi to prepare environment management plan over Najafgarh lake issue
Sep 18, 2020
New Delhi [India], September 18 : The National Green Tribunal has directed Haryana and Delhi governments to jointly prepare Environment Management Plan in connection with the Najafgarh lake issues.
The NGT bench headed by chairperson Adarsh Kumar Goel also directed that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) may steer the procedure for preparation of the Environment Management Plan with the assistance of CPCB. CPCB may coordinate as a nodal agency.
"In view of the fact that there is a large transboundary water body which partly falls in Delhi and partly in Haryana, it will be appropriate that an Environment Management Plan is prepared jointly by the State of Haryana and NCT of Delhi," the NGT said.
The NGT said that such a plan may be prepared within three months and action taken report may be filed before January 27, 2021, the next date fixed for hearing.
The water body falls partly in Delhi and partly in Haryana. A report dated September 17, filed by the District Magistrate, Gurgaon said that there is no entry of a water body in the revenue record and the area is partly government land partly private.
Counsel for the State of Haryana, however, stated that factually there is a large water body in existence and a management plan is under consideration of the state.
The NGT was hearing a petition filed by NGO Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) to execute the directions of the green tribunal to concerned governments to notify Najafgarh Jheel.
The petitioner's counsel, Akash Vashishtha, countered the Haryana govt's stand that Najafgarh Lake was just an ordinary water body.
He told the court that Haryana had already submitted a brief document to the MOEFCC in 2017, to notify it as a wetland under the Wetland Rules 2010.
Vashishtha submitted that it was an Execution Application and Haryana had no occasion to flip-flop on the matter and rebutt its own position submitted by it before the NGT earlier.
The NGO has filed an Execution Application alleging that the Delhi and the State of Haryana have failed to take necessary action.
