Gujarat government’s bid to construct houses on water body stayed by HC

Justice BirenVaishnav has stayed the state government’s decision to de-notify the lake inTandalja area paving way for a private developer to construct houses for people of economically weaker section on the water body which was declared a lake by way of notification in 2005. The same is said to be a temperory stay. The state government has undertook a campaign of deepening reservoirs for better water recharge across the state and its decision to de-notify a water body in Vadodara and build houses on the land was questioned before Gujarat high court. The 48,259 square metre land in TP Scheme No 22 in Tandalja in Vadodara city has been a recognized water body since 1952 and it urged the HC that the state government and Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) should be restrained from constructing 1,400 houses under the Pradhan MantriAwasYojna on the lake. For petitioner Jignesh Pandya, advocate Amit Panchal submitted that the process of de-notifying the water body, which was notified in gazette by the government in 2005, was illegal. Advocate Panchal cited the affidavit filed by the state government in a PIL filed in 2000 giving assurances that all water bodies in city areas would be preserved and protected. He also cited the Supreme Court directions for preservation of water bodies.