Vital queries remain unanswered

LUCKNOW: Despite Uttar Pradesh environment secretary VK Gupta’s attempt at washing the environment ministry’s hands off the Taj corridor controversy, answers to vital questions remain ambiguous.
Despite his extensive chronology of events and developments leading up to the present controversy, Gupta, when repeatedly asked why the preliminary report as well as the Detailed Project Report (DPR) did not contain a hydrology study in the first place, had this to offer:
“It was the Mission Management Board (MMB) which recommended the project and sent it to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF).Maybe no such study was conducted because such a study was not considered necessary at the preliminary stage.�
The fact however remained, that this vital hydrology study was not conducted even at the DPR stage.
When repeatedly asked to comment on this, Gupta finally said: “Perhaps the MMB thought that if they conducted this study before submitting the report to the Centre, then there would be a call for more such detailed studies and the work would be affected.�
Under the Ancient Monuments and Remains Protection Act, 1958, any construction work within a 100 meters area around the two World Heritage Monuments — the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort — is strictly prohibited, while within an area of 200 meters around the monuments, construction work is regulated.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) officials have cried foul over the reclamation work starting a mere 80 meters from the wall of the fortification of the Agra Fort, in violation of the Act.
They claim that no prior permission or notification or even consultation with the ASI was carried out by the ministry of environment, the MMB or the National Projects Construction Corporation, with regards to the reclamation work of the Yamuna bed.
Gupta’s stand on this is confusing. On one hand, Gupta vehemently denied any ‘reclamation of the Yamuna bed’, saying: “No part of the filled up stretch of land is part of what was once the Yamuna’s bed.
What is being called ‘reclaimed land from the Yamuna’s bed’, is actually fresh land that has been filled up, and we were told by the NPCC, that before this was undertaken, people would use this land to defecate on and they would also throw dead bodies here.�
However, earlier, while clarifying the environment ministry’s role in the heritage corridor project, Gupta had quoted the Supreme Court’s ruling on May 1, 2003, saying: “The SC ordered that CWPRS, Khadakvasla would assess the behaviour of river and impact of reclamation of river bed on the monuments and it’s protection thereof.�
Then again, he stressed: “The filling of land is 300 metres from the Agra Fort and 500 metres from the Taj Mahal.�
This has however been proved incorrect by photographic evidence available with this reporter and corroborated by the complaints of ASI officials. And finally, Gupta swears that the embankment along the reclaimed stretch of land has been constructed in keeping with the SC stricture, with it being a “stone and clay temporary structure�.
However, photographic evidence clearly indicates otherwise, with the embankment being made of stone and concrete, indicating its ‘permanent’ nature.