Maharashtra clears Lavasa, slaps criminal case on it!

The Maharashtra government’s decision to file a criminal case against promoters and officials of hill city project Lavasa in the Pune magistrate’s court is not just harsh—few recall criminal cases filed for violating the Environment Protection Act, and that too as a precondition to clearing the project—it is bizarre since no state government official has been named even though it was the state that cleared the project every step of the way. Although it is true the state government filed the case only after the Centre upped the ante, if Lavasa promoters and officials are to be criminally prosecuted, so must state government officials—as environment minister Jairam Ramesh had asked the state to take ‘credible action’ against Lavasa before the second phase of its project could be cleared and, last month, his successor Jayanthi Natarajan refused to clear the project till this was done.

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