Mumbai: Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has ruled against the Lavasa hill city project. Sources have told CNN-IBN that the Ministry's report says Lavasa violates the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification of 1994 and the construction is unauthorised as well as environmentally damaging.
The Ministry has ordered substantial penalties on Lavasa Corporation Limited for the violation of environmental laws in its report submitted to the Bombay High Court on Tuesday. The report has also ordered status quo to be maintained at site.
But Lavasa Corporation Limited hit out at the Ministry claiming that it does not have objective and measurable norms.
Lavasa, in the statement released on Tuesday, alleges that the Ministry's report has misrepresented the state of affairs at the site.
Questioning the basis of the Empowered Committee report, the company blames Ministry of amplifying minor faults and of ignoring the environmental work done at the site. The company also alleges that the Ministry's order on Lavasa is more on jurisdiction than on environment issues.
"If the report misrepresents state of affairs at the site by amplifying minor faults and ignoring the environmental work done, it is bound to have a negative bearing on the decision of the competent authority," the statement says,
The statement also says that status quo at the site will continue.
The MoEf report has challenged Maharashtra governments hill stations policy of 1996, saying it should be reviewed.
Lavasa also accuses the Ministry of siding with activist Medha Patkar and her supporters.
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