List illegal structures around Kerwa, Kaliyasot dams: NGT

Bhopal: The NGT on Tuesday asked the district collector and the BMC to clarify on the area demarcated as Kerwa and Kaliyasot reservoirs and the encroachments in the ‘no construction' area around the two dams that need to be removed.The direction came in response to two petitions seeking removal of encroachments in the green belt where a botanical garden is proposed to be constructed, in the periphery of Kaliyasot and Kerwa reservoirs on the outskirts of Bhopal.The green bench directed the Bhopal collector and the BMC to file a compliance report within four weeks, as it listed the case for the next hearing on July 29. The central bench of Justice Sheo Kumar Singh and expert member Prashant Gargava also asked the collector and the city civic body to clear their position on the argument put forward by Harshwardhan Tiwari, the counsel for one of the petitioners, that images sent back by an Isro satellite show the two reservoirs as part of Bhopal wetland. Taking the argument further, the counsel added that the buffer or no-construction zone in the periphery of Kerwa and Kaliyasot reservoirs should be raised from 33 metres to 50 metres. In their push to clear encroachment in the green belt, one of the two petitioners, environment activist Subhash C Pandey, cited the NGT order of March 17 in which the NGT stated without clarity on the demarcation of the ‘no construction' zone around the two reservoirs and the encroachments therein, an affidavit filed by the primary respondents, Bhopal collector and the BMC, would be ‘vague'.Arguing for himself before the NGT bench, Pandey pushed for the administration to come clean on the total submergence area of two reservoirs in revenue records, the area under encroachment along with names of violators, identification and demarcation of area for the proposed botanical garden in the periphery of two reservoirs and details of matters pending before the HC where eviction proceedings have been stayed.