Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday directed the state and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board to respond to a public interest litigation that sought to halt the construction of a sugar factory allegedly run by cabinet minister Harshvardhan Patil’s relatives. Patil holds the portfolio of the cooperatives department.
A division bench of Chief
Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Anoop Mohta was hearing a petition filed by the
grampanchayat of Ashti village, Mohol taluka, Solapur, which stated that the
“biased authorities” had allowed the factory’s construction to go on by
flouting norms. The petition mentions that Patil’s wife, Bhagyashree, is the
chairman and managing director of Audumberraoji Patil Sakhar Karkhana Limited.
“An extract acquired from the office of the companies’ registrar shows the
names of the wife, mother and daughter of the minister,” said the advocate of
the Ashti village grampanchayat, Shrinivas Patwardhan.
The petition added that the
effluents from the factory, which was illegally being built on agricultural
land, would destroy the only drinking water reservoir located 1.5 km away. Ashti
talao is reportedly the only source of drinking water for the local population
as well as for 25 villages within a 50-km radius. “It is an ecologically
sensitive area. Around 200 species of birds visit here,” said Patwardhan.
According to the petition, in
April 2011, the taluka health officer of the panchayat samiti had said the
factory, which would emit pollutants, molasses, press mud and chemicals, would
pose a hazard to the environment and in July 2011, the panchayat unanimously
rejected the permission for the factory. In spite of that, the Solapur zilla
parishad issued a certificate, which wrongly showed the location of the
proposed factory to be farther from the reservoir, the petition stated, adding
that even the MPCB did not take effective steps against it.
On hearing the PIL, the
judges declined to stay the construction. “Let us see what they (authorities)
have to say. We can always ask them to demolish it,” said Justice Shah.
Minister Patil remained
unavailable for comment despite several attempts to contact him.
Courtesy:
Rosy Sequeira TNN
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