Nagpur: The Supreme Court has extended its stay till March 21 on the construction activities at Futala lake. The Apex court ordered Maharashtra Government and Metro Rail Corporation not to carry out any construction activity at the lake.
Initially, on January 25, a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud had stayed the ongoing construction at the lake, built by Nagpur’s Bhosle dynasty on over 60 acres of land. It was hearing a petition filed by an NGO Swaach Association, Nagpur. The stay on construction has been extended from time to time. “On the request of Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General and Shekhar Naphade, senior counsel, list the matter on March 21. Interim order to continue till the next date of listing,” the bench ordered on Thursday.
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Earlier, the bench had taken note of the submission of senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayan, appearing for the NGO, that an order of status quo on the ongoing construction was needed to save the water body. He had said concrete structures have come up at the lake. Observing that ‘there are anyway few wetlands remaining in the country’, the bench had asked the authorities to refrain from continuing with the construction activities for the time being and sought to know as to when they will remove the concrete structures including the viewers’ gallery at the lake.
Sankaranarayan said that despite the Ministry of Environment and Forest declaring the lake a wetland, more than 7,000 tonnes of concrete had been dumped in the tank and construction work for a steel fountain in the middle of the lake was being done for the beautification of the place. He also said 16,000 square feet of land along the lake was being converted into a viewers gallery. The plea said Futala Lake is a wetland and large-scale construction there may destroy the ecosystem and aquatic life there.
