High curt orders a stop to all work on Ganga Expressway

ALLAHABAD - The Allahabad High Court Monday ordered a stop to any kind of construction work of the Ganga Expressway, a 1047-km link between Greater Noida and Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, and asked the state chief secretary and the head of the construction company to appear before it at next hearing.

Hearing a contempt petition of Ganga Mahasabha and Swami Narendra Giri who contended that work on the expressway was continuing despite the court’s May 29 order, a division bench of Justice D.P.Singh ordered all work to be stopped.

It also ordered Chief Secretary A.K. Gupta, the construction company JP Group’s chief managing director Manoj Gaur, and the district magistrate and superintendent of police of Mirzapur to appear before the court Dec 2.

“In an earlier decision May 29, the court barred the Uttar Pradesh government from proceeding ahead on the project and directed the authorities concerned to obtain prior clearance from environmental board. However, construction was still going on at various places and taking a strict note of this, the bench has summoned these officials,” Arun Kumar Gupta, counsel of the petitioners, told media persons.

“The high court on May 29 had also quashed the earlier environmental clearance granted by the Environmental Protection Authority. The state government was also directed not to proceed with the highway project unless and until it obtained a due clearance from the state-level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA),” he said.

Reacting to the verdict, another petitioner, Jitendranand Swam,i said: “The pollution in Uttar Pradesh is already alarming. How can anyone grant permission for aquiring agricultural land for this 1000-km long project? Taking into consideration all these, the Ganga Mahasabha filed a petition in the high court. We are extremely happy that the court considered our plea.”