HC issues notice on Ganga Expressway

A K Gupta,counsel of the petitioner Ganga Mahasabha,alleged that despite the court’s order,the state government and the JP group were conducting a survey and acquiring land in Mirzapur. “The DM and the ASP of Mirzapur were actively involved in helping the JP Group in the land acquisition,” Gupta alleged.

Chaturvedi,however,told the court that no construction or land acquisition was going on and that the petitioner had an “ulterior motive to stall the development project”.

The court had on May 29 quashed the Environmental Clearance Certificate obtained by the government from State Level Environmental Impact Assessment Authority,saying it did not follow all four stages of process as laid down in the Environment Protection Act. It ordered that all work on the project be stopped and asked the government to obtain fresh certificate “within the guidelines laid down by Environment Protection Act 1986”.

The Ganga Expressway Project was launched by Chief Minister Mayawati in 2007 with an aim to construct a 1,047 km access-controlled eight-lane expressway along the Ganga river connecting Greater Noida on the western border of UP to Ballia on the state’s eastern border.