The landmark judgment by principal bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT), Delhi, quashing office memorandum (OM) of Union ministry of environment & forest on clearance of projects involving violation of Environment Protection Act, 1986, has cast a shadow on at least six irrigation projects in Maharashtra, three of them in Vidarbha, that fall within 10 km from the boundary of protected areas (PAs).

On July 7, NGT headed by Swantanter Kumar, Justice UD Salvi & DK Agrawal (members) and Prof AR Yousuf & BS Sajwan (expert members) quashed OMs of December 12, 2012, which replaced a similar OM of November 16, 2010. The NGT also asked violating parties to submit a written commitment that such violations would not be repeated and directed the state governments to initiate action against violations. After doing this, the projects were to be considered by MoEF and its Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC)...........Read more

Source web page: Times of India