An NGO today moved the Supreme Court against a National Green Tribunal order dismissing its plea to continue pond renovation works in Braj area in the pilgrimage town of Govardhan.
The NGO Braj foundation, in its plea through chairman Vineet Narain, challenged the NGT's May 24 order which had junked its plea to continue the work and had stated that the renovation project should be taken up by the government.
No "private individual, organisation, NGO or any other body" should undertake the work of preservation and restoration of water bodies, the tribunal had said.
The law laid down by the apex court leaves no room of doubt that such properties are not only properties of the State but also its bounden duty to look after, restore and supervise them, the order had said
There cannot be any negligence "on the part of any officer of the State in supervising and restoring the property which are ancient and heritage and to keep a vigil over them so that no one, howsoever high, has an evil eye over it and does not dare to encroach upon them," the NGT had said in its May 24 order.
The NGT order had come on the plea filed by the NGO seeking clarification of August 4, 2015 order which declared the entire "Parikrama Marg" as no-construction zone to avoid any encroachment and asked the civic bodies to construct a sewerage system along the holy area.
Due to the NGT order, the local authorities stayed the restoration work being undertaken by the foundation at Sankarshan Kund in Anyor and Rudra Kund in Jatipura, the NGO said.
The plea in the top court said that the tribunal has "grievously erred" in its order and denied it the opportunity to place documents on record which were related to the case.
It said that "the NGT has exceeded its jurisdiction and adjudicated a matter that falls within the jurisdiction of the appropriate civil court".
The NGO's secretary Rajneesh Kapur said that by holding that the project Giriraj Parikrama Development should be taken up by the government and no other private body, the tribunal has imposed an "arbitrary restraint" on the constitutional powers of the Gram Panchayat, which had given it the permission to carry out the renovation work.
The green panel had earlier ordered the Mathura district magistrate to conduct an inquiry into how two former village heads have awarded pond renovation works without following legal procedures in the pilgrimage town of Govardhan.
It had said that neither any meeting nor any resolution was passed to renovate the Sankarshan Kund in Anyor and Rudra Kund in Jatipura.
The tribunal's order had come on a plea filed by Mathura-based Giriraj Parikrama Sanrakshan Sansthan and others seeking compliance of the August 4, 2015 directions of the NGT.
The organisation had raised the issue of civic authorities discharging sewage and municipal waste into the ponds and other water bodies in Govardhan.
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