Click to play videoCNN-IBN asked Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh about whether the posh 31-storeyed Adarsh building in Mumbai be demolished? Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh admits it’s an option. He blamed the Congress-ruled Maharashtra government for bypassing rules.
Jairam Ramesh: We sent a letter to the Maharashtra government and on October 26 we received an interim reply saying that there had been no approval given by the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Authority. They need to give the CRZ 91 clearance and Adarsh clearly didn’t have this clearance. The Adarsh housing project was clearly violating CRZ 91. We are awaiting the final reply, which I expect will come day after tomorrow and I think we will be able to take a final call.
It appears that the urban development department gave the clearance without getting the nod of the environment ministry in the state government. I think that’s the issue. I have seen the records in the past and I don’t think that any point of the environment ministry has said go and build this 31-storey building violating environment laws.
CNN-IBN: So if you find the violations are clear, can you order for the demolition of the building?
Jairam Ramesh: I am sure that here is a law, there is CRZ 91 – we are modifying CRZ 91 but till that modification comes into being, it is CRZ 91.
CNN-IBN: So can the building be demolished?
Jairam Ramesh: That’s certainly an option. It is the short-circuiting of procedures at the state government level that has led to this scandal. If there has been some slip off from the ministry of environment and forest in 2003 then let the facts come out. I’m not here to accuse or defend anybody. But all I want to say is that it would be very unfair on my part to say anything about my predecessors.
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