SHILLONG, June 30: The Meghalaya High Court has constituted a High Powered Committee (HPC) to look into a PIL filed in connection with the felling of trees for a road project.
The PIL, filed by city-based lawyer Kaustav Paul, came up for hearing on Wednesday. Without making any observation, the court constituted the five-member HPC.
The order, passed by a division bench, said a comprehensive report shall be submitted by the HPC on the next date, after conducting a thorough and detailed enquiry with regard to the issue as highlighted and upon inspection of the actual site.
According to the court, it will be open to the HPC to suggest viable means to resolve the issues raised in the PIL without compromising either with conservation of the trees (some of which were of considerable heritage) and environment on one hand and development/expansion of the road project on the other.
Advocate General Amit Kumar, the petitioner, a representative each from Forests & Environment Department and National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd and entrepreneur and environmentalist Jiwat Vaswani are the members of the HPC.
The matter has been listed for hearing after three weeks for further consideration.
