Govt urges SC to accept panel’s majority view on Char Dham road project
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Minority view says round wants a rethink contemplating its “long-term impacts on the fragile Himalayan terrain and sensitive ecosystem”
The Central authorities supported the majority view taken by the Supreme Court’s Char Dham High-Powered Committee (HPC) for the need of broadening the Himalayan feeder roads to India-China border so as to facilitate troop motion.
The Ministry of Defence, in an affidavit, stated it was unlucky that three of the HPC members had given a minority view to rethink a December 15, 2020 round of the Ministry of Road and Transport and Highways (MoRTH), which mounted the carriageway width of the feeder roads at seven metre with a paved shoulder spanning 1.5 metre on both aspect.
A Bench led by Justice Rohinton Nariman, on December 2, requested the HPC to meet and talk about a plea by the Ministry that narrowing the feeder roads alongside the India-China border in Uttarakhand would trigger “serious repurcussions” to nationwide safety.
The minority view, nonetheless, stated the round wanted a rethink contemplating its “long-term impacts on the fragile Himalayan terrain and sensitive ecosystem”.
Unfortunate, says affidavit
The Centre, in its affidavit, stated it was “unfortunate” that the HPC members, who’re within the minority, have given such an opinion “notwithstanding the security of the country and the need of the defence forces to resist possible external aggression”.
The authorities urged the court docket to accept the majority view of 21 members on the HPC who help the round, which had amended an earlier MoRTH one in all March 2018 that known as for narrower roads to defend the Himalayan ecosystem.
The authorities defined that the March 2018 round had dealt “generally with roads in hilly and mountainous terrain without reference to the needs of the Armed Forces”.
The affidavit stated, “The Forces have to take heavy vehicles, tanks, self-propelled artillery and troops to the Indo-China border… It is the specific need of the Armed Forces to defend the country against any possible external aggression at the northern border – this had required amendments in the March 2018 circular”.
An earlier affidavit of the federal government stated a double-lane road with a width of seven to 7.5 metre was needed to meet the Army’s requirement. Heavy vehicles carrying troops, tools and armaments couldn’t be caught on blocked feeder roads main to a border which ran to 385 km in Uttarakhand.
Deployment in emergency conditions
It stated that bottlenecks would delay deployment in emergency conditions if feeder roads weren’t developed to requisite requirements. The Army had been utilizing these roads publish the warfare with China in 1962.
The affidavit additionally referred to a “recent face-off” with Nepal in Lipulekh aspect in 2020, saying all these sectors have been “highly sensitive”.
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