The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court has directed the State Government to outline its plans for removing the Swami Vivekananda statue near Ambazari lake along with illegal constructions on the Naag river, and river cleaning measures on Friday. The High Court has instructed the Principal Secretary of the Urban Development Department to submit an affidavit with details of the proposed actions by July 3. This directive came during a hearing on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) presided over by Justice Nitin Sambre and Justice Abhay Mantri. The High Court asked the State Advocate General Dr Birendra Saraf about what action was taken against the encroachment and who are the officers saving the encroachers. Dr Saraf responded that a period of seven days should be given for the removal of encroachment. The High Court verbally stated that the officers should be informed how much cost should be imposed on them. No action has been taken by any officer.

 

The High Court mentioned that various administration departments are involved in this and further asked Dr Saraf how much time is required. The Division bench further stated that first, the Municipal Commissioner and the Principal Secretary should submit their affidavit, then the court will decide what to do. The High Court has ordered the government officials to submit an affidavit to determine the water-carrying capacity of the Naag river and what action would be taken for the relocation of the statue and illegal construction. In the previous hearing, the High Court had ordered that a high-level committee headed by the Divisional Commissioner should make a decision within a month to shift the statue to another place as the monument was constructed near the Ambazari lake in a no-development zone.

 

As the committee failed to submit a report, the court on Wednesday raised strong objections. The court stated that the monsoon has arrived. ‘So, do you want to save the statue or do you want to save the lives of the citizens? Which option do you choose?’ It may be mentioned here that due to heavy rains in September 2023, the water of Ambazari Lake entered into the shops and hundreds of houses which cuased huge financial loss to the citizens. Therefore, citizens have filed a Public Interest Litigation. Advocate Tushar Mandlekar represented the petitioners, Adv General Dr Birendra Saraf appeared for the State, Adv Ravi Sanyal for MPCB, Adv Prashant Sathianathan for the petitioners, and Adv Gemini Casat for NMC, Adv Girsh Kunte for NIT, and Adv Jaideep Chandurkar for the Irrigation Department.