'NGT ignored master plan for B'luru'

The National Green Tribunal didn’t take into account the revised master plan for Bengaluru when it extended the buffer zone around lakes to 75 metres, a group of land owners told the Supreme Court on Friday.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the owners, said nobody had challenged the revised 2015 master plan, fixing the buffer at 30 metres.

The NGT made it 75 metres in May 2016, and changed the real estate landscape of the city, he contended.

The bench, comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Prafulla C Pant, said it would hear the matter once the pleadings were done.

Sibal, Uday Holla and K Shashi Kiran Shetty are appearing for the petitioners, while Abhishek M Singhvi represents the NGO Forward Foundation.

More than a dozen appeals have been filed against the NGO order passed in response to a plea by Forward Foundation and others.

The apex court had earlier refused to stay the NGT order, setting a higher buffer threshold for the lakes.

The top court, however, had stayed the NGT penalties of Rs 117 crore on Mantri Techzone and Rs 13.5 crore on Core Mind Software and Services, slapped for encroachment of water bodies in Bengaluru.

City’s lake buffer wrangle
2015: BDA releases master plan for Bengaluru, defines 30 metres as lake buffer zone
2016: Green Tribunal extends buffer to 75 metres, penalises real estate biggies for building on water bodies
2017: Petitioners tell Supreme Court order has altered the city’s ‘real estate landscape’