Maharashtra files case against Lavasa,board members

MPCB filed a criminal case against Lavasa Corporation Ltd under Environmental Protection Act.

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) on Friday filed a criminal case against Lavasa Corporation Ltd and 14 persons,including members of the board of directors in 2004 and five officials of the hill city project,under the Environment Protection Act.

The action,ironically,paves the way for environmental clearance to the first phase of the township that has already been constructed. There is a stop-work order in force in the rest of the project.

The filing of the case satisfies the first of the five pre-conditions set by the environment ministry for granting clearance to the project. The precondition said credible action must be initiated by the state government against the company for violating the environment Act. The company had not obtained environmental clearance before constructing phase I of the project. The company has already agreed to meet the other four preconditions.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today met Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan in Delhi to apprise her of the action taken by the state government. Sources said the state government had also sent a formal communication in this regard to the environment ministry.

The environmental clearance to phase I is expected any time next week.

The complaint in Pune was filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate N T Ghatge. The court said it would scrutinise the case and admit it after that.

The case is against the company and 14 persons associated with it. These include nine persons who were members of the (board) in 2004,as the alleged violations had taken place in that year, P K Mirashe,MPCB zonal officer for Western Zone,told The Indian Express.

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While Mirashe said the identity of those who have been named will only be disclosed after the case is admitted by the court after scrutiny,a state government lawyer representing the MPCB said those named in the complaint include Ajit Gulabchand,the main promoter of the Lavasa project,and directors of the company Aniruddha Deshpande,Anuradha Jitendra Desai,Gautam Thapar and Vithhal Maniar.

The case has been filed under Sections 15 and 16 of the Environment Protection Act. Section 15 deals with violations for which penalties may extend to five years of imprisonment or fine of Rs 1 lakh or both. Section 16 states that if an offence is committed by a company,any person directly in charge of or responsible for the conduct of business in the company is liable to be prosecuted.

(With inputs from Nisha Nambiar)

What Lavasa says

In a statement to the media,Lavasa stated that in compliance with the preconditions set by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for granting environment clearance to the Lavasa project,the Maharashtra State Government has taken necessary action by filing complaint in magistrate court,Pune. It is unfortunate that the State Government which had itself granted the Environment Clearance to Lavasa in 2004 has had to initiate this action. Incidentally action by the state government was the only precondition coming in way of the project getting environment clearance from MoEF. We wish to reiterate that Lavasa Corporation Limited has adhered to laws of the land at all times and will continue to do so in the future.