Lt Gen Kamal Davar (Retd) (Jaipal Singh)
NGO SPOKE was founded by late B K Nehru with eminent citizens and retired defence officers as its members in 1992 with an aim to preserve the character, ecology and ambience of Kasauli cantonment and its surrounding areas. Newly-elected president of SPOKE, Lt Gen Kamal Davar (retd), speaks to Chandigarh Newsline. Excerpts from an interview:
Hoteliers say that it is due to SPOKE that their portions are being demolished.
That is not correct. SPOKE approached National Green Tribunal (NGT) to oppose the construction of 42 extra rooms in HPTDC’s Hotel Ross Common’s annexe in Kasauli cantonment. We never made any private hotels parties in the petition. It was the Himachal tourism department, which submitted before the NGT that while the HPTDC was being stopped to construct a new hotel, there were several private ones, which did not adhere to the norms. The NGT then sought the list of hotels and guest houses. Private hoteliers should complain against the government. The NGT never sought any details of any private hotels from SPOKE.
You head an NGO that bats for environmental issues, but it seems you do not want to be in confrontation with private hoteliers…
SPOKE is an environmental body, focusing on planting trees and preserving the ecology of Kasauli. We are not a monitoring body. We neither have resources, nor the mandate to check private hotels for any illegalities. We took up the cudgels against the proposed government hotel as Kasauli already had a number of issues to deal with and a new one would have added to its woes. There is problem of too much congestion due to vehicular traffic, especially on weekends. There are problems of water shortage, sewerage and drainage. And, a new hotel with 42 rooms would have added to these problems. So, SPOKE opposed it, first taking up the matter with the then Chief Minister and later moving NGT.
The unauthorised structures did not come up overnight. What is your take on that?
The administration and private hoteliers should adhere to the law. Or, there will be problems. The state government must ensure proper implementation of laws it frames. The state government must pre-empt any wrongdoing.