Mumbai, Oct 27 Slamming the Maharashtra government over the felling of trees for a pumped storage plant near Karjat, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday said a project built by clearing forests can not be called “clean”.
The ruling BJP said that the project was necessary for the state, and accused Thackeray of having double standards, alleging that his party had received donations from the same company in the past.
The Opposition and green activists are up in arms against the felling of trees for the 3,000-MW Saidongar-1 Pumped Storage Project of Torrent Power near Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary.
Addressing a news conference, Aaditya, a former environment minister, alleged that 6-7 lakh trees, much more than the official figure, will be cut for the project.
The project site falls in an eco-sensitive zone where locals are not allowed to build even houses, but a Gujarat-based company has received a greenlight, he said.
“Why did you choose only Sahyadri mountains for a Gujarat company?” Thackeray asked.
“One can not have a clean project by clearing jungles,” said the Sena (UBT) leader who had visited the project site earlier, and asked if the government could not find an alternative location.
Thackeray also sought to know how much power the project will generate.
He also questioned the Environmental Impact Assessment report of the project, claiming that objections raised during a public hearing were not recorded.
As to the government’s claim that trees would be planted elsewhere to compensate for the deforestation, Thackeray challenged it to show a single forest created in this way.
Even some BJP members were opposing the project, he claimed.
Responding to Thackeray’s criticism of the project, the BJP asked how many trees had been felled to construct his “farmhouse in Karjat”.
State BJP chief spokesperson Navnath Ban alleged that Opposition leaders including Aaditya Thackeray, Sanjay Raut and NCP(SP)’s Rohit Pawar always oppose development projects under the guise of protecting the environment.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis gave the go-ahead to the project to ensure that electricity reaches every household in Maharashtra and rid the state of power cuts, rather than to create a city like Lavasa for the wealthy or facilitate the construction of farmhouses, Ban said.
Notably, the Lavasa hill city project had been cleared during an earlier Congress-NCP government.
Ban further claimed that the Torrent project would help avoid annual burning of 16 lakh tonnes of coal and prevent the release of around 1.15 crore tonnes of carbon dioxide, an offset which would otherwise require 22 crore to 24 crore trees.
Describing the project as a source of green energy, he alleged that Opposition leaders were ignoring its potential benefits to Maharashtra.
He also cited the Koyna hydroelectric project, launched by then Chief Minister Yashwantrao Chavan in the 1960s, saying the state would not have been able to meet its electricity requirements had it faced opposition.
Ban also referred to Thackeray’s opposition to the Mumbai Metro carshed project in the past, noting that the completed Metro line provides a convenient mode of travelling from Goregaon to Churchgate.
The BJP spokesperson also alleged that Sena (UBT) had received crores of rupees in donations from Torrent, demanding that Thackeray disclose the amount his party had allegedly received from the company.
“Accepting donations from a company and subsequently opposing its project amounts to double standards,” Ban claimed.
(PTI News)
