Chandigarh: Nayagaon Ghar Bachao Manch, a prominent Chandigarh-based public front has strongly objected to the latest move of Punjab’s Forest and Wildlife Conservation Department in which an old proposed notification for an eco-sensitive area in the vicinity of Chandigarh has been sent for approval of the state cabinet.
The notification is meant for declaring an Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) up to 3 km. for Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary adjacent to the Nayagaon Municipal Committee, SAS Nagar (Mohali) district Mohali.
The move amounts to defying the Supreme Court orders as well as bypassing the high-level committee constituted by the Punjab government, comprising three cabinet ministers Lal Chand Kataruchak, Dr Ravjot Singh and Hardeep Singh Mundian, alleged Vineet Joshi, chairman of the manch and senior BJP leader of Punjab.
He demanded that a joint meeting of ministers and officials of the concerned departments should be convened immediately to take a decision per law on the objections raised before the high-level committee during the public hearing.
As soon as the proposed notification is approved in the cabinet meeting headed by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, more than two lakh poor and lower middle-class population living in Nayagaon, Kansal, Karoran, and Nada under Nayagaon Municipal Council jurisdiction will face plethora of problems, said the BJP leader expressing serious concern about the houses, shops, hospitals, religious places, hotels etc. may also be demolished though built according to the law.
The Supreme Court had directed the Punjab government to listen to the objections of Nayagaon residents, take action on them, and decide accordingly. The high-level committee comprising three ministers conducted a public hearing on December 4, 2024. The committee took more than a hundred objections in writing after giving a hearing to the concerned residents, councilors and organizations of the area.
However, no meeting was held after that to decide the objections according to the law, which is clearly a violation of the orders of the Supreme Court, alleged the BJP leader.
As per the set norms and rules, the representations before the committee with its suggestions and objections have to be complied with; discussed, deliberated and considered and then decided upon as per merit in the interest of the residents of Nayagaon and surrounding areas.
However, the officers of the Forest and Wildlife Conservation Department have unilaterally gone ahead with the old proposal without any meeting or discussion with the other ministers and officials of Local Government, Housing and Urban Development departments that are part of the committee on ESZ, he alleged.
