Notice to State, Centre on UAS land issue

Project on road to link Yeshwanthpur, Yelahanka

 
Petitioners, Dr R Dwarkinath, Dr G K Veeresh, Dr K V Devraj and others, had moved the High Court challenging the State government’s decision to hand over the university land for road construction. They had also challenged the decision of the board of regents to allocate 24 acres of university land to the BBMP, to construct a 9-km road connecting Yeshwanthpur and Yelahanka to provide a direct link road to BIA.

The notification inviting tenders to construct the road was issued by BBMP on February 12. The 100-ft wide road that is to pass through an area inside the university land, is recommended as ‘biodiversity hot spot’ by the National Biodiversity board.

Petitioners submitted that the UAS Board of Regents, initially on May 29 took an unanimous decision to not hand over the land for the project. However, the decision was reversed on August 18.   They said following a protest by Vidyaranyapura residents on August 20, the Governor too had directed to take appropriate action on August 28, but the BBMP on September 4 went ahead with the construction violating the order and cut hundreds of trees. The petitioners seeking a direction against the road construction has sought an environment impact assessment of the place. The division bench comprising Justice A S Bopanna and Justice Aravind Kumar has ordered notice to the State government, Department of Agriculture, BBMP, BDA, Forest Department, Union Ministry for Environment and Dr S Subramanya.