Assam: Supreme Court orders Status Quo at Doloo Tea Estate

GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court has told the Assam Government to keep things as they are at the Doloo Tea estate in the Cachar district, where they plan to build a Greenfield airport.

As per reports, a group of judges, including Chief Justice DY Chandrachund and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra, asked the state government why they cleared the bushes in the tea garden without reporting on how it would affect the environment.

The apex court also sent notices to the Central government, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Assam government, and others about a request made by Tapas Guha and others.

Lawyer Prashant Bhushan represented the petitions and argued that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) made a mistake in its decision.

He also said that even for getting permission to use and getting initial approvals, it’s important to have environmental clearance.

It is important to mention that on January 25, the NGT rejected the request from Guha and others. They did this because they are still waiting for the report on how the environment would be affected, and they haven’t given permission yet for the airport to be built.

The NGT said, “The lawyer for the applicants pointed out a notification from the Government of India, Ministry of Civil Aviation, dated May 16, 2008. They emphasized that even to get initial approval and site clearance, it's necessary to have environmental clearance, which can only be obtained after an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study is completed. However, we believe that just because there's a clause about environmental clearances in the notification form doesn't mean it's mandatory for the EIA study.”

The request presented to the NGT asked for a direction to stop any more work on building the Greenfield Airport at Doloo Tea Estate until a thorough Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is done, following the EIA notification.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) applied to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) for permission to develop a new airport at Doloo Tea estate in Cachar under the Greenfield Airports (GFA) Policy, 2008.

ALSO READ:

ALSO WATCH: