The National Green Tribunal has agreed to hear a plea challenging the November 9, 2012 environment clearance (EC) granted to Lavasa Corporation Ltd for its $ 31 billion hillside township project in Pune district of Maharashtra.

The Tribunal directed Lavasa, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to file their replies to the petition of a project-hit Pune native before July 24.

The controversial Lavasa Hill City project in Pune district has attracted the Comptroller and Auditor General of India's attention. Lavasa is being developed by the HCC Group.

The CAG, in its latest report, said: “The project was driven by private interest rather than public interest. The State Government gave environmental clearance to the project without referring it to the Government of India.”

Not transparent

The report, tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday, pointed out that HCC's selection as a developer by the Maharashtra Government was not transparent.

Coming down hard on the state government on the Lavasa hill town project, the CAG report has said the government bent rules and made amendments to existing laws only to allow the controversial township to be built at the cost of public interest. The report was tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday.

Observing that the project nods were given without environmental and cabinet approvals, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), on Tuesday, slammed the state government for “total lack of transparency” in the selection of the Lavasa hill station project in Pune district. Claiming that the Lavasa project was driven by private interests rather than the public one, the CAG report said that expression of interests were not invited by the government for the development of Lavasa, thus made the process non-transparent.

The tribunal has asked the MoEF and the state of Maharashtra to file their replies on Lavasa's plea

The National Green Tribunal today deferred the hearing of Lavasa Corporation Ltd's petition challenging the environment ministry's decision to impose conditions with the environmental clearance accorded to the firm's $31 billion hillside township project near Pune. The hearing was adjourned for July 19, in wake of cases pending in the Bombay High Court on issues relating to the project where the tribunal's jurisdiction to hear Lavasa's plea is to be decided.

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), yet to be tabled in the state legislature, has mentioned the undue favouritism given to Lavasa that led to a revenue loss of Rs13 crore. The project was given the concessions in stamp duty (Rs4.31 crore), registration (Rs5.30 crore) and nazarana (Rs3.71 crore) taxes despite having just ‘industry’ status; industry projects do not enjoy these concessions.

The fast-dwindling water stock reflects the grim water situation in the state ahead of summer, irrigation minister Sunil Tatkare said in the legislative assembly on Monday. The state's water stock has gone down to 31% against 46% on the same day last year, he said. Tatkare said measures would be taken to cope with the scarcity. He was replying to a discussion on the budgetary demands of his department. Stating that the consumption rate, both in urban and rural areas, has gone up, Tatkare said Marathwada was the worst-affected.

Angered by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the controversial hill station project, Lavasa Lake City; activists of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) are now planning to file a contempt suit against him.

This was told to DNA by advocate Vishwambhar Chowdhury on Sunday. “Knowing well, that the Bombay high court (HC) has ordered to stop the construction work at Lavasa due to irregularities in the project, Modi chose to visit the site. It is very unfortunate,” he said.

Pune Lavasa Corporation has said it will be filing a writ petition in the Bombay High Court to set aside the orders of the Pune court.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate N T Ghadge had ordered Lavasa Corporation and 15 others including promoters and directors to appear in the Pune court on January 30, 2012 to defend themselves in the criminal case filed by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) for environment violations.

Seeks talks after court battle lost

Crying “discrimination”, the Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) wants to initiate a fresh dialogue with the environment ministry to arrive at a solution enabling the expansion of its aluminum refinery in Orissa.Vedanta has claimed the ministry discriminated against it by not clearing its Lanjigarh project, while the Jindal Power and Lavasa projects got the green signal.