Lake damage: NGT notices to Centre, cos

Hyderabad: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued notices to the Centre and two construction firms in the city over alleged damage to a water body by a project near Narsingi. The order was passed in response to a plea by Congress MP Revanth Reddy.
According to Revanth’s petition, the construction firms have damaged the “water channel which supplies water from Narsingi lake-2, Muskin Cheruvu to Nagireddy Kunta”.With no proper precautions taken, the entire stream was covered by the project, resulting in waterlogging in the residential complex, it said. The plea sought to declare the construction in prohibited natural water body as illegal and against provisions of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.
Admitting the application and serving notices, the NGT ordered a previously-appointed committee to look into the issue. The committee includes district collector of Rangareddy, an officer of Chennai regional office of Ministry of Environment & Forests and an officer from lake protection committee. The committee has been asked to submit a factual report that will include the proposed action to be recommended in case of a violation and imposition of environmental compensation with remedial measures.The report will be considered during the next hearing on December 14.
The committee was also directed to check whether there existed any water canal or stream as alleged by the applicant and whether there was any encroachment by the respondents while taking up the construction. The committee is to clarify if any conditions of the environmental clearance have been violated. The application cites environmental violations on five grounds.
The state of Telangana, state environment impact assessment authority, TSPCB, GHMC and other agencies have also been named as respondents.