Former Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, former RAW chief A.S. Dulat, and former Punjab DGP Julio Ribeiro were among the 79 signatories from the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG) in the letter released 28 December.<\/p>\n
After the Supreme Court order limiting the definition of Aravalli range amid row, activists, academics and common people are raising their voices against the \u2018100 metres\u2019 definition. Later, the top court reversed the verdict through a 2:1 decision.<\/p>\n
The former civil servants have written to the court, saying that such orders are \u201cagainst the interests of the Indian citizen\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese three orders of the Supreme Court, passed in such quick succession, are against the interests of the Indian citizen and the conservation of nature in our country. Our fervent plea to the Court is to prioritise the health and right to life of its citizens over the waste of money of corporates, and to uphold its own principles of \u2018polluter pays\u2019, \u2018precautionary principle\u2019 and \u2018intergenerational equity\u2019,\u201d read the letter.<\/p>\n
The group has given detailed reasoning on what could go wrong if the redefinition of the Aravallis was carried out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Aravalli range, most of which is below 100 m in height, is estimated to be around 670 million years old and acts as a natural barrier slowing the spread of the Thar Desert, stabilising micro-climates and recharging aquifers,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new definition will potentially exclude over 90 percent of the Aravalli range from environmental protection, opening it up to mining and construction and practically removing its ability to be a dust barrier for the Delhi-NCR region,\u201d the group said, adding that it would actively allow the advance of desertification into Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR)<\/p>\n
Regarding the Central Empowered Committee order, the collective asserted that the CEC was losing its independence and acting in alignment with the environment ministry, instead of functioning as an independent monitor of forest and wildlife protections.<\/p>\n
These orders weaken long-standing environmental jurisprudence and the safeguards that were created to protect forests and hills, the former civil servants said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese decisions set back sound environmental jurisprudence and reward violations, instead of upholding the constitutional mandate to protect forests, wildlife and ecologically sensitive landscapes,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recall of earlier safeguards rewards violators and reverses decades of environmental jurisprudence meant to protect forests, hills and the right to a healthy environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The collective said that the orders come at a time when extreme climate events and record air pollution levels demand stronger environmental safeguards. It added that if mining begins in the Aravallis, it will increase the AQI in Delhi-NCR, a region that is already choking.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impact of such mining on the Air Quality Index in Delhi-NCR, a region that is already choking due to a lack of breathable air, can only be imagined. It will amount to state-driven carnage, which will predominantly impact the most marginalised people of Delhi-NCR who do not have the luxury of air purifiers and have to work outdoors in such noxious conditions,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n
(Edited by Tony Rai)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[114285,10207,246,61,60,82,8779],"class_list":["post-220752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-aravallis","tag-civil-servants","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}