Tag: CM Kejriwal’s house

A bench headed by chairperson Adarsh Kumar Goel, noting the “significance of requirement of compliance for cutting trees and providing green belt as a condition for constructions in the congested and polluted city of Delhi”, ordered that a joint committee be set up.

The committee will comprise the Delhi chief secretary, principal secretary (environment and forest), a nominee of the Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC) and the district magistrate of North Delhi.

Last week, The Indian Express reported that a field visit by the Delhi Forest Department officials found that there was “no sign of planting 137 trees” (out of 280) which were to be planted as compensation for the 28 trees removed for the redevelopment.

The tribunal ordered that a meeting of the committee be held in a week and the report be furnished in three weeks.

“If any violations are found, the committee may take remedial action in coordination with the concerned statutory authorities, in accordance with the law,” the NGT order, which was passed on Tuesday, stated. The next date of the NGT hearing has been set as May 31.

The petitioner, Naresh Chaudhary, alleged that constructions at 6 Flagstaff Road and 45-47 Rajpur Road (adjacent to the CM’s official residence) were against environmental norms. He, through his lawyer Gaurav Kumar Bansal, also stated in his petition that construction at the house had begun without taking mandatory clearance from the DUAC.

The petition also stated that permissions for removing trees were taken by “manipulation and circumvention” of standing orders. According to a 2009 order of the Department of Forests and Wildlife, permission for cutting over 10 trees has to be processed by senior officers — the Conservator of Forests and the department secretary.

“Instead of disclosing that 28 trees were to be cut in which permission of higher authority was required, permissions were taken in instalments of less than 10 trees,” the petition states.

As per the report of the deputy forest ranger of the Central Forest Division, permissions for removal (transplanting and cutting) of 28 trees were taken in five instalments — nine, two, six, six and five trees in each.  The petition also states that work to renovate the house was started without taking mandatory permissions from the DUAC.

As per minutes of the DUAC meeting held in November 2020, the Public Works Department’s proposal for work was not approved by the body. The body noted, “It is mentioned in the project details that the site work has already commenced. Construction can commence only after approval. As per the subject/project title, the proposal is for the ‘additions/alterations’, however, it is clearly evident from the submission that an entirely ‘new building’ is being proposed after completely demolishing the existing structure. This needs clarification.”

In a subsequent meeting in December 2020, the proposal was rejected again and changes to the plan were proposed. The changes suggested said: “It was observed that British architectural elements and style has been used extensively in the design proposal which was not appreciated.  Instead, it was suggested to explore a regular simple design approach to be adopted to represent a contemporary Indian/Delhi representative style.”

The DUAC approval finally came a week later. In the minutes, the commission noted: “The use of Indian column base/capitals in the revised elevation were appreciated by the commission.”