Green belt near Lodhi Club: NGT appoints advocate commissioner

Ludhiana: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has appointed an advocate commissioner in the matter pertaining to green belts near Lodhi Club and Old GT Road.

The development comes amid an ongoing petition against encroachments.

The advocate commissioner will verify the facts of petitioner and the Municipal Corporation Ludhiana.

The NGT ordered that there are contradictory claims on the part of applicant and the Municipal Corporation Ludhiana so “there is a need to verify these facts and appoint an advocate commissioner, Amit Shukla, to visit the disputed site, find out factual position and submit report by next date, which is Dec 17”. Petitioner Kapil Arora had challenged the report filed by the civic body by terming it incorrect.

Hence, the verification has been ordered.

In the report submitted by the MC, it is mentioned that reports of the assistant town planner, of building branch, zone-C and site plan provided by the executive engineer of bridges and road branch of the MC suggested that the land in question is a “part of right of way alongside old G T Road”. “It is abundantly clear from the Master Plan (Legend) that the said part of the land falls under the city park/major open spaces, which was, later on, developed as park on this part of right of way to prevent it from any further encroachments,” the MC said.

“On this right of way along Old GT road, green belt/park was developed on the said part of land spreading over 1124 square yards. Out of 1124 sq yards, only 52 square yards’ area has been used for construction of a library for the benefits of the local community, which is only four per cent of the total area of park/green belt. This allocation falls within the permissible limit of 15 per cent which is mandated by the state govt through notification issued on May 11, 2017,” the MC said.

However, applicant Arora also filed an affidavit that the land area under park on which the library is constructed is 350 square yards “but the MCL has deliberately mentioned it as 1124 sq yard”.

He said the MC has mentioned the same park as “292 square meters, that is 350 square yards,” in an affidavit submitted before the Punjab and Haryana high court.

The MCL has mentioned the covered area of the building as 52 square yards but has disclosed the area covered using tiles in the park. He measured the park area on Nov 1.

“The total area of the park is concretized using interlocking tiles and by construction of tiles comes out to be 195 sq yards ie. 55 per cent of the existing park area, which is against the directions of this tribunal,” the applicant said.

The local bodies department had also banned parking of vehicles in green belts but the impugned greenbelts at Old GT Road as well as Lodhi Club Road are being used for parking of private vehicles. The portion which is not concretized is also being used for parking by private shop/showroom owners/vehicle repair workshops resulting in major environmental damage.

The overall area of stretch of greenbelts which is concretized by the respondent MCL/private persons is almost 50 per cent of total greenbelts along Old GT Road, “thus such greenbelts may kindly be directed to be restituted by demolishing concrete impermeable flooring”, the petition says. The private school has also concretized the greenbelt area using the area for parking of school vans.

The applicant also mentioned that NGT had passed orders in a petition filed by him to direct the municipal corporation to demolish MC extension office building, store and encroachments done by private persons in green belts.