MP Deepender Hooda has questioned the Central Government’s flawed arguments and malicious intent before the Supreme Court on the crucial issue of the Aravalli hills. He said people across the country are rejecting the government’s intent and the way in which it presented its case in the Supreme Court to get the 100-metre definition approved, as the public has caught the government’s intention and its deceit in “selling” the Aravalli hills.
Addressing a press conference at the District Congress Committee (Rural) office after participating in various events in Gurugram, Deepender said the government’s deceit has been exposed and its intention to loot has come to light.
“We will not allow the government to loot. Not only is the public rejecting the 100-metre parameter, but the Supreme Court’s empowered committee has also said that the 100-metre limit is unjustified,” he said.
He added that the Supreme Court itself had rejected this justification in 2010 and asserted that the people of the country would not allow any backdoor attempt to sacrifice the environment to corruption.
He demanded that the government itself should go to the Supreme Court to get the 100-metre decision overturned and file a review petition after apologising to the people of the country. “The government should not consider the Aravalli hills as unclaimed property; the people of Haryana, along with Rajasthan, will fight to save the Aravalli hills and the environment,” he said.
“The people of the country will not allow the backdoor attempt to sacrifice the environment to corruption to succeed. We will not allow the mountains and the environment to fall prey to corruption. The BJP government will be forced to backtrack, just like in the farmers' movement,” he added.
Deepender termed the stance taken by the Central and state governments in the Supreme Court as unfortunate and demanded that the Haryana government make public the affidavit it submitted to the SC on the Aravalli issue. He said the Central Government’s new guidelines were merely a deception and an unsuccessful attempt to mislead the public. “The order prohibiting the issuance of new mining leases is nothing more than provisional compliance with previous Supreme Court orders,” he said.
He said that those who intend to destroy the forests are talking about forest safaris. “At a time when Haryana and the Delhi-NCR region have the most polluted environment in the world, the government has taken a decision to destroy the Aravalli range by implementing the 100-meter rule. The government should have instead pledged to plant millions of trees in the Aravalli region to ensure clean air for breathing,” he demanded.
Deepender pointed out that India is among the countries with the lowest forest cover in the world. “Japan has 80 percent, and the United States has 60 percent forest cover, while Haryana has only 2 percent. When there is no clean air to breathe, who will live in these tall buildings,” he questioned.
“Today, farmhouses are being built in the Aravalli region. Along with large-scale illegal mining, big real estate companies have entered this area. Illegal mining has caused immense damage to the Aravalli range, which the people of the country and the state are witnessing. The CAG report in Haryana stated that illegal mining resulted in a scam of approximately Rs 5,000 crore in the state,” he questioned.
He said that the central government and the Haryana government, under pressure from and in collusion with the builder lobby, mining lobby, and lobbies associated with big industrialists and business houses, have initiated the process of defining the 100-meter rule. “The new stand taken by the Supreme Court is entirely due to the flawed arguments presented by the BJP-led central government and the BJP state governments,” he said.
The Congress MP said the party had given notices in both the winter session of Parliament and the Haryana Legislative Assembly on environmental and Aravalli-related issues, but the government refused to discuss them. He questioned if environmental and Aravalli issues, including those of Gurugram and Faridabad, are not discussed in the Indian Parliament or the Haryana Assembly, will they be discussed in the US Senate or the British House of Commons?
He said that the BJP changes the names of schemes, and now they have even changed the definition of the Aravalli range. “Will changing the definition save the Aravalli hills,” he questioned.
Those present on this occasion included MLA Aftab Ahmed, Haryana Pradesh Congress Working President Jitendra Bhardwaj, former minister Sukhbir Kataria, Gurugram City Congress District President Pankaj Dawar, Gurugram Rural Congress District President Vardhan Yadav, Sudhir Chaudhary, former Congress candidate from Gurugram Mohit Grover, Rewari Rural Congress District President Subhash Chand Chhabri, former Congress candidate from Pataudi Pearl Chaudhary, former mayoral candidate from Gurugram Seema Pahuja, Councillor Satpal, Manish Khatana, and others.
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