Hyderabad: Telangana High court on Friday dismissed an Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the demolition of TS Secretariat buildings. A bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Vijay Sen Reddy in its order said that petitioner’s counsel did not provide any specific guidelines justifying in claiming the violation of Section 12 of disaster management act , 2005 and also section 2 of epidemic act 1897.
The court in its order said since the GHMC which is the local authority , as required under law has been availed. The other contentions i. e environment clearance for demolition as informed by the union Ministry of Environment is not required for the demolition purpose and rejected by the HC. Demolition has granted permission by GHMC, petitioner did not give evidence that since demolition of secretariat has begun the air quality has been affected.
Advocate General B S Prasad informed that the government has obtained permission from GHMC for demolition of buildings in Secretariat. He also said that environmental permission is required for the construction of new buildings and not during the demolition. Prasad said that the government will get the environmental clearance from the centre to construct the new buildings on removing the old ones.
TJS leader and Professor P L Vishweshwar Rao, urged the court to prevent environmental pollution being caused by demolition works in the Secretariat which is against norms. With this the government can now move swiftly to remove old buildings and build new structures as planned.
The KCR Government has recently released a design fir the new Secretariat to be built by spending about Rs 500 cr. The opposition parties are opposing the government on the issue.
The petitioner’s counsel, CH Prabhakar while arguing the case, said the demolition decision was in violation of Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules 2016, Provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, Environment Protection Act 1986 and against the provisions of the Disaster Management Act 2005. He also said that the state government had not followed any procedures prescribed by law and no permission was obtained from the local authorities in accordance with the Solid
Waste Management Rules.
He also said that there was a possibility of the spread to the respiratory problems due to the demolition of the buildings among the residents of the neighbouring areas. Rebutting the arguments of the petitioners, the AG opposed the grant of stay on the demolition drive by stating that that all necessary permissions were taken before taking up the drive. In their petition, the two petitioners had said that that the demolition of the 10 blocks of the
The High court dismissed the PIls and allowed the demolition process of Telangana State old secretariat buildings.