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Oct 28, 2017, 03.14 AM IST

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SC slams ad hoc structures around Taj, asks UP for pollution-proof plan

, ET Bureau|
Updated: Oct 27, 2017, 11.55 PM IST
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The apex court had on October 24 ordered the demolition of the multi-level car parking which is under construction.
The apex court had on October 24 ordered the demolition of the multi-level car parking which is under construction.
The Supreme Court on Friday criticised the Uttar Pradesh government for allowing all sorts of ad hoc construction in and around the Taj Mahal, and wanted to know if the government had a comprehensive plan for the development of the Taj Trapezium Zone that would protect the monument from pollution.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the UP Tourism Board, said that the state government does have a comprehensive policy for developing the area without polluting the Taj and sought time to produce it. He urged the court to direct status quo on a controversial multi-level parking lot that had been ordered to be demolished just a few days ago by the court.

“All clearances have been obtained for this,” he argued. The bench, comprising Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta, however, demanded to know if the government had any policy to ensure development of the area without affecting the Taj.

“One day you say we want a parking lot -- can we cut 11 trees, next day you say you want another thing, can we cut 100, then you say we want a third thing, can be cut some more trees. It can’t be like this,” Justice Lokur observed.

“All this seems to be done on an ad hoc basis. Do you have a policy? Can we have a look at it?”

Mehta said that there is indeed a policy. This particular parking within a km of the actual Taj would be 20,000 square feet, he said. “All permissions have been taken for this,” he said, a fact contested by activist-lawyer MC Mehta, who claimed that it was an ecologically sensitive area and all rules were flouted while constructing it.

The bench prima facie observed that the government was claiming that for every 11 trees cut, it would plant 100, and for every 100 trees cut, a lakh trees. “How are you going to do this, we don’t know,” Justice Lokur said. “Where is the space?” The bench then asked the law officer to produce the policy for the court’s perusal. The ASG urged the court to restrict its insistence on a policy on only the Taj complex. The TTZ, he said, consists of 7 districts. “The nearby activities would have a more potent effect on the Taj,” he said, urging the court to only look at plans regarding development of the Taj complex.

But the bench would not hear of a plan involving a smaller area than the TTZ. “They may have an impact on the Taj,” the bench said, when MC Mehta pointed out that the court had stepped in originally to protect the monument from the Mathura refinery.

That was back in 1996 in a PIL filed by Mehta. The court had then taken note of the findings that the monument was becoming yellow due to pollution, and had identified a 10,400 sq km stretch around the monument as the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) where no industry could be located or construction undertaken without the court’s approval.

At the last hearing, the court had ordered demolition of the parking lot. The state government later rushed in, urging the court to recall the order passed in its absence.
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