Soon, probe panel to study Lavasa lapses

Bowing to mounting pressure from the locals and social activists, the state government on Tuesday is believed to have agreed to set up a commission of inquiry under a panel of three retired high court judges to look into the Lavasa city project. Social activist Anna Hazare has deferred his indefinite fast over the issue by three months after the assurance.

“The government has promised to study and place a report on all possible legal violations in the Lavasa city project within three months,” Hazare told reporters after a two-hour meeting with chief minister Prithviraj Chavan at Devgiri. Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar was also present.

However, in his official pre-session press conference addressed jointly with deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar later, Chavan skirted the issue by maintaining that he had promised to look seriously into the demands. 

He did not say unequivocally that he had constituted an inquiry into the project.

“I told them that the government is new and it will take some time for me to study the issues,” he said.

Patkar said the project has already been stayed by the Union ministry for environment and forests (MoEF), but “we told the CM that there are a series of violations of law and locals’ rights.” She said the Lavasa City Corporation should make public its reply to the MoEF’s notice, and the government also must share its study with the public when it finishes it. In the interim period, she said, the public protests and movement against the “violations” would continue unabated.

Hazare said another panel would be constituted by the government to look into the lack of transparency in toll tax collection across the state. “Today there is no transparency,” he said.