National Green Tribunal
Ajay Kumar Soni vs State Of Chattisgarh on 7 September, 2022
Item No.01 (Court No. 2)
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
PRINCIPAL BENCH
(By Video Conferencing)
Original Application No.280 /2022
Ajay Kumar Soni ...Applicant
Versus
State of Chattisgarh ...Respondent
Date of hearing: 07.09.2022
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ARUN KUMAR TYAGI, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE DR. AFROZ AHMAD, EXPERT MEMBER
Applicant: None.
Application is registered based on a letter petition received by Post.
ORDER
1. The grievances raised in the present letter petition by Mr. Ajay Kumar Soni resident of Lions Chowk, Champa, District Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh are that water body (pond) existed in Khasra No.979, in village Champa Ranim, District Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh as per revenue record prepared in the year 1929. The revenue Officials in collusion with land Mafia got the above said land mutated in the name of other persons by bifurcating the above said land who encroached the pond and filled the same with fly ash thereby causing destruction of source of water and serious environmental degradation.
2. This Tribunal, vide order dated 28.04.2022, took cognizance and constituted a Joint Committee comprising of State PCB, State Wetland Authority and Collector, Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh and directed the same to submit Factual and Action taken Report within two months. The relevant part of the order is reproduced below:
O. A. No. 280/2022 Ajay Kumar Soni Vs. State of Chattisgarh -2- "In view of the averments made in the present letter Petition, it would be appropriate to have a factual and action taken report from a Joint Committee comprising of State PCB, State Wetland Authority and Collector, Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh. The State PCB will be the Nodal agency for coordination and compliance. The Joint Committee may meet within four weeks, undertake site visits, look into the grievances of the applicant and take requisite action by following due process of law. Factual and action taken report may be furnished within two months by e-mail at [email protected] preferably in the form of searchable PDF/OCR Support PDF and not in the form of Image PDF..."
3. In compliance thereof, Regional Officer, Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation Board, Bilaspur has submitted report of the Joint Committee to this Tribunal vide letter dated 20.07.2022 sent by email dated 26.07.2022. The relevant part of the report reads as under:-
"X X X X X X Report of the Committee formed as per order of the Hon'ble NGT in the Original Application No. 280/2022 Ajay Kumar Soni Vs State of Chhattisgarh S. Key point mentioned in the Response of the Committee NO. order of the Hon'ble National Green Tribunal 1 This Application is filed by The committee visited the site Mr. Ajay Kumar Soni, on date 15/06/2022. During the resident of Lions Chowk, visit, it was observed that the Champa, District:- Janjgir- alleged Khasra no. 979 is Champa (C.G.) raising the undergoing some construction issue that water body activities. The said parcel of land (pond) existed in Khasra was having a boundary wall around no. 979, in village Champa it and the ground was concreted. Ranim, District :- Copies of the photographs taken Janjgir-Champa (C.G.) as during the site visit are attached as per the revenue record Annexure-1. prepared in the year 1929. It has been alleged by the The Regional Officer of CECB sent a applicant that the revenue letter to the Sub-Divisional officials in collusion by the Magistrate (Revenue), Division- land mafia got the above said Champa, District-Janjgir-Champa land mutated in the name of (C.G.) and asked to provide other persons by bifurcating documents relating the origin of use the above said land, which of the Khasra no. 979. As per the encroached the pond and documents received from letter of filled the same with fly ash the SDM dated 13/07/2022, it is thereby causing destruction very clear that the said parcel of of source of water and land was never any water serious environmental body/pond/wet land. The said degradation. letter contains a detailed status about the origin of ownership of the land as received from Tehsildar, O. A. No. 280/2022 Ajay Kumar Soni Vs. State of Chattisgarh -3- Champa, District- Janjgir Champa.
The information received from SDM and Tehsildar and the Misal records of Khasra no. 979 from the year 1929- 1930 clearly show that the land was always a private land, and was registered under the ownership of Mr. Manglu Gada back then. It is also stated in the letter Tehsildar that The said land has never been registered as government land or as water body and no water body was found existing at the said parcel of land during the committee visit. The said land was inspected by the respective patwari Mr. Roshan Singh on date 25/03/2022 and it was found that the land has been registered as private land in the revenue records.
The Patwari has clearly stated in his report that the alleged land was never any government land and nor it ever was any wetland/pond/ water body. The copy of the letters from SDM and Tehsildar and the copy of report of the patwari submitted to Tehsildar is hereby attached as Annexure- 2.
To ascertain the current condition of Khasra no. 979, another inspection was done by Patwari Roshan Singh on date 04/05/2022. As per this report, the said land admeasuring 0.95 acre has been distributed in between 14 persons and all of these distributions are to private persons. The detailed report of the patwari listing out the 14 persons who are now holding the ownership of Khasra no 979 is hereby attached as Annexure-3.
The Chhattisgarh State Wetland Authority has also provided a list of actual wetlands verified by Space Application ISRO. The list includes the geographical Latitudes and Longitudes of such wetlands and the alleged Khasra no.979 does not fall within the list of wetlands. A copy of the letter from Chhattisgarh State Wetland Authority is attached as Annexure-4.
O. A. No. 280/2022 Ajay Kumar Soni Vs. State of Chattisgarh -4-
4. None has appeared for the applicant. The correctness of the observations made in the report of the Joint Committee is not disputed by anyone including the applicant.
5. It is evident from the report of the Joint Committee that land comprised in Khasra no. 979 was owned by private persons and was never government land. The same has been recorded as private land in the revenue records. Further, the above said land was never wetland/pond/ water body and did not fall within the list of wetlands.
6. The averments made in the application are falsified by the report of the Joint Committee and no action is required to be taken on the application which disposed of accordingly.
Arun Kumar Tyagi, JM Dr. Afroz Ahmad, EM September 07, 2022 AG