Vadodara floods: Authorities served legal notice for turning river bed into dumping site

By A Representative
Senior environmentalist Rohit Prajapati has served legal notice to the authorities of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gandhinagar, and the Vadodara Municipal Corporation for allegedly violating the Construction and Demolition Rules and Section 15 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
Prajapati demanded clear-cut explanation within 15 days as to why "irreversible" structures were allowed along the river Vishwamitri and the riverbed was to turned into a dumping site for debris, which led to one of the worst floods in the city a fortnight ago.
Talking to media, Prajapati said in Vadodara, legal actions will have to be taken against the authorities concerned for this state of affairs, pointing out the “smart city" Vadodara does not have full time municipal Ccommissioner for about a month and an "experienced-qualified" town planner since 2006. Administrative inertia led to waterlogging and flood, he added.
According to Prajapati, time has come that people should ask the government and the Vadodara Municipal Corporation as to what kind of development were they allowing in the city. The legal notice follows several letters by Prajapati and his colleagues in the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti asking them to allow the river, passing through the city, to flow free, without any artificial hurdles.

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