Supreme Court stays construction of NOIDA Park India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The Supreme Court on Friday restrained the Uttar Pradesh Government from carrying out further construction activity of a memorial park in NOIDA. The BSP Government was in the process of installing statues of Dalit icons, including that of Chief Minister Mayawati in a park on the banks of river Yamuna in NOIDA. The apex court, however, has allowed the authorities to continue with other works related to multicrore projects. The Special Forest Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices S H Kapadia and Justice Aftab Alam posted the matter for further hearing on October 26. The three judge bench refuted to entertain the Uttar Pradesh Government's plea to allow continuance of the work on grounds that 75 per cent of the work has been completed. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the State Government, requested for an adjournment of the hearing on the ground that he was appearing for the first time in the matter. He also sought time to respond to the CEC report. Earlier, the Supreme Court-appointed committee had recommended abandoning construction work at Noida's Bhim Rao Ambedkar Park for violating environment norms. The committee's report noted that the government did not seek environment clearance before starting the work. The committee in it's report opined that the construction activity would have an adverse effect on the surrounding ecosystem as it is located within ten kilometres of a bird sanctuary in Okhla village. The report also expressed concern over the pulling down of over 6,000 trees to execute the Rs.685 crore project.