There is a lot of hue and cry over the Lavasa hill city project in Pune Maharashtra. There has been many issues of violations of laws, but the environment minister Jairam Ramesh has strongly came up to say that complete clearance to this city has not been granted by the environment ministry. According to him there are 5 pre conditions which need to be fulfilled by the project authority.  A large scale agitation is being carried out by the National Alliance of Peoples Movement led by Medha Patkar; their agitation is backed by many documentary evidences obtained through RTI. There has been a large scale violation of the environmental laws in this area. There has been violation of the hill station regulation laws as well.  The land here has been acquired by the company from the tribal through middlemen which is strictly prohibited by the law. And not only that the company has acquired ceiling lands as well which were distributed to the land less tribals out here in the Lavasa hill area.

The company has also violated hill station regulation laws by acquiring farm lands for industrial use .and industrial use of land in hill stations is strictly prohibited. With the statement of Jairam Ramesh regarding the clearances of the project the Hindustan construction company is alleging that he is taking side of the activists. It is being estimated that company managed to get clearances because of NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule and current Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar having shares in the company.

News report by Abhishek Kumar

Legal Hurdles over Lavasa city