Orissa High Court extends status quo on sanctuary land

CUTTACK: THE Orissa High Court has extended the status quo on a patch of land within the eco-sensitive zone of Balukhand-Konark Wildlife Sanctuary where the Konark Notified Area Council (NAC) had undertaken construction of a micro composting centre (MCC). The status quo will continue until further orders. The interim status quo order was first issued on June 4 after Odisha Bio-diversity Conservation Foundation (OBCF) filed a PIL seeking intervention against the construction of the MCC as it violated environment protection laws. Advocate Shivsankar Mohanty argued the case for OBCF.

The petition was taken up for further hearing through video conferencing on Tuesday. While the State Government counsel sought more time to file a response to the PIL, Konark NAC filed a counter-affidavit and also moved a petition for vacating the stay order. Taking note of it, the division bench of Justice Sanju Panda and Justice Biswajit Mohanty fixed August 10 for hearing on the matter along with the response of the Government and Konark NAC’s counter-affidavit. The NAC had awarded work order to a private party for construction of MCC having a processing capacity of two tonne per day, after inviting bids online.

In the counter affidavit, Executive Officer of Konark NAC Srinivas Rao claimed that construction of the MCC on land within the eco-sensitive zone was undertaken as per the SOP issued by the Housing and Urban Development department. “Though the land is situated within the zone, the monitoring committee of eco-sensitive zone of Balukhand-Konark Wildlife Sanctuary had approved regulated activity of solid waste management on it,” Rao said in the affidavit. The OSPCB’s permission was not required for construction of the MCC as biodegradable waste of NAC area was less than 3 tonne per day, he said and added that the MCC has been planned on the lines of a sanitation park.