PUNE | KOLHAPUR: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) bench in Pune on Friday directed the Satara district collector to furnish details of Ahmedabad-based GST commissioner Chandrakant Valvi’s address so that the latter can be impleaded as a respondent in a proceeding over an alleged land grab near Mahabaleshwar that violates the Maharashtra Land Ceiling Act.
The green tribunal’s principal bench in New Delhi had taken suo motu cognisance of a newspaper report, “Gujarat GST Commissioner Grabs 620 Acres from Entire Village near Maharashtra’s Mahabaleshwar,” published on May 18 and had on July 4 transferred the matter to the Pune bench. The land in question is in Jhadani village near Mahabaleshwar in Satara district.
The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the ministry of environment, forest & climate change (MoEFCC), the state principal chief conservator of forest, and the Satara district collector have so far been named respondents in the matter.
“We also find that the person against whom the allegations are made is the Gujarat GST commissioner, Chandrakant Valvi, whose name has not been impleaded as one of the respondents in the present original application, who appears to be a necessary party in this matter.
Therefore, we direct the respondent no.5 — district collector, Satara — to find out the correct address of the above-mentioned person and communicate the same to the registry of this tribunal, within a week, so that we may direct the registry for his impleadment as one of the respondents and for issuance of notice to them for filing a reply affidavit in this matter,” the bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh and expert member Vijay Kulkarni said on Friday.
TOI made repeated calls to Valvi and also sent messages to him seeking his comment on the matter. However, there was no response from him till the time of going to press.
The news report had highlighted “considerable damage to the environment in the interior areas due to unauthorised constructions, digging and cutting of trees, illegal road and power supply from the forest border etc. For the last three years, illegal construction, large-scale mining and excavation have been going on, which has resulted in loss of biodiversity, air and water pollution and climate change.”
The bench has given four weeks to the MPCB, the CPCB and the Satara district collector to file their reply affidavits. It has also issued notices, returnable in four weeks, to the state principal chief conservator of forest and the MoEFCC. The matter has been posted for next hearing on Nov 11.
Satara district collector Jitendra Dudi said, “We have not yet received a copy of the NGT order. We will respond once we get it.”
Valvi and his associate Anil Vasave had earlier moved an application before additional district collector Jeevan Galande, assigned by the state as a tribunal to inquire into the land grab allegations, challenging the revenue tribunal’s authority and seeking transfer of the matter to the state revenue department on grounds that they had land in different revenue divisions, including Nashik and Nandurbar.
“We have on Aug 22 written to the revenue department higher-ups seeking their opinion on the challenge raised by the applicants and the state’s response is awaited,” Galande told TOI.
