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Wetlands activists raise questions as panel skips monthly meetings

The 13-member committee was constituted by the state government in 2016 under fire from the Bombay High Court to monitor and protect wetlands and also includes Stalin D

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Activists fighting to save wetlands across Maharashtra are upset as several cases of wetland destruction have piled up after the monthly meeting of the Bombay High Court appointed wetland grievance redressal committee was not only cancelled last month without any information but there has been no word about the meeting to be held this month either.

The 13-member committee was constituted by the state government in 2016 under fire from the Bombay High Court to monitor and protect wetlands and also includes Stalin D, Project Director of Vanashakti who was the petitioner in the case filed in the High Court.

"The first meeting was held in October 2016 and since then there have been regular meetings but strangely no meeting was called in March and no one even bothered to inform the reason for it. There is no clarity about the meeting for this month too yet," informed Stalin D, adding that this was a violation of the court orders.

He informed that for the last several months, the committee has been playing a crucial role as it had imposed heavy fines on private landowners for destroying wetlands and quick decisions were taken on complaints by citizens.

"The most important aspect of this committee was that the whole passing of the buck affair of government authorities has been eliminated as all departments are present for the meetings so immediate decisions are taken. We are worried that state government should not start disrupting these meetings as otherwise the good work being done for wetland conservation would be derailed," he said.

Meanwhile, a senior official said that March is the end of the financial year so most of the officials who are part of the committee were busy in their respective work hence the meeting could not be organised. "We are working out dates for the meeting this month. It will be finalised soon and most likely be held in the last week," said the official.

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