The Supreme Court today rebuked the Uttar Pradesh government for "sleeping over" for more than a decade on the issue of providing green cover around the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) but accepted the road map and timeframe placed by it to meet the target of planting six lakh saplings in two years at the cost of Rs 20 crore.
"Why have you been sleeping for more than 10 years? Till the time we were driven to direct CBI probe nothing was done," a bench comprising justices T S Thakur and C Nagappan said.
"Our suspicion and hunch have come true that nothing was happening," the bench further said while referring to the issue which has been in the apex court since 1996.
The apex court on March 9 had stopped short of ordering a CBI inquiry into alleged irregularities in utilisation of funds by Uttar Pradesh's forest department for felling and plantation of trees in TTZ in Agra and other districts for construction of roads and implementing other projects.
The state government complied with the last chance given to it and placed the roadmap and time frame for planting saplings in six districts of Agra, Mathura, Ferozabad, Hathras, Kasganj and Aliganj.
Advocate General Vijay Bahadur Singh assured the bench that the unimpressive past record of the state government would not come in the way of its commitment.
The bench directed the state government to take assistance of school children, teachers, parents, government organisations and NGOs to meet the commitment.
It said quarterly report has to be submitted by Principal Secretary of state forest department and in addition the Additional Chief Conservator of Forest would also associate himself in overseeing the projects.
The Advocate General assured the court that the first phase of plantation of saplings would be completed by August 31 and authorities are waiting for first spell of rainfall in June to start the process.
