NGT SENDS WARRANT AGAINST COMMISSIONER

Agra November 20 (IANS)

 

Divisional commissioner Pradeep Bhatnagar has been served a bailable warrant to be present in the National Green Tribunal hearing on December 5, in a case relating to trespassing of Soor Sarovar bird sanctuary land by an engineering college on the Agra-Delhi highway.

 

Bhatnagar, as the chairman of the Agra Development Authority, one of the seven respondents, failed to appear before the tribunal on November 17. The petition has been  filed by eco-activist DK Joshi, who feels the case is pointlessly being dragged for so long. The UP Forest Department and the Wild Life department have already imposed hefty fine of Rs 10 crores on the college. The hostels were also sealed after complaints that the waste from the hostels was being discharged directly into the Keitham lake, built by the British as an emergency reservoir for Agra. The high mast lights installed by the college, Joshi said had been found to be hurting the birds.