HC lens on fish & meat mkt in eco-sensitive zone

Cuttack: The Orissa high court has issued a notice to the principal secretary of housing and urban development department on the construction of a fish and meat market inside the restricted 500-metre eco-sensitive zone of Konark-Balukhand Wildlife Sanctuary.Konark-based NGO Odisha Biodiversity Conservation Foundation’s (OBCF) trustee Binayak Swain filed a PIL in the high court seeking relocation of the fish and meat market to the area designated for it in the Konark master plan.When the PIL was taken up for hearing on Thursday, petitioner’s counsel Shivsankar Mohanty submitted that an area has been earmarked for setting up the market in the master plan of Konark. But the executive officer of Konark Notified Area Council (NAC) had deviated from the master plan and put the market inside the eco-sensitive zone of the sanctuary, Mohanty contended.The petition alleged the fish and meat market is being constructed five metres from the wildlife sanctuary and within 500 m of its eco-sensitive zone. The petition also alleged the executive officer of Konark NAC had proceeded with the “illegal action” without taking prior permission of the Puri district collector, who is chairman of the managing committee of the eco-sensitive zone of the wildlife sanctuary.Taking it on record, the two-judge bench of acting Chief Justice B R Sarangi and Justice M S Raman also issued notices to the Gop tehsildar, executive officer of Konark NAC and divisional forest officer of Puri. However, the bench did not fix any further date for hearing or any deadline for the filing of replies.
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