Residents' groups hail green tribunal order on Mantri

The historic judgment of the National Green Tribunal imposing a hefty penalty on Mantri Techzone Private Limited and Coremind Software and Service Private Limited brought smile on the faces of the residents’ groups which had fought the case tooth and nail.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Vijayan Menon of the Citizens' Action Forum (CAF), who was instrumental in the decisive battle against the Mantri Developers, said he was elated with the order.

He said he is yet to go through the order but he feared that there were any strictures passed against the government agencies. Menon said: “The government should not have allowed such things to happen in the first place. If the government was alert these issues would not have come up.”

The CAF, the consortium of 150-odd residents' welfare associations, the Namma Bengaluru Foundation, First Forward and Praja had come together to fight this case. Anticipating that the firms may approach the Supreme Court, the CAF and others have decided to file a caveat so that in the event of challenging the NGT order, these groups should be alerted and allowed to be party in the case.

When contacted, Renuka of Mantri Developers said the firm would not react to it right now as it has not got the copy of the order.