Tuesday Brief

A few days back two petitioners  Anya Malhotra (a translator) and Sohail Hashmi (documentary filmmaker)  filed a petition in Delhi High Court (HC) regarding stopping work being carried out for the Central Vista in the Capital. Their contention was that during the time of the Covid pandemic the construction of the non-essential project should not take place.

The two-judge bench of HC commented that “The construction of Central Vista Avenue Redevelopment Project cannot be seen in isolation. In fact, the whole Central Vista Project is an essential project of national importance, where the sovereign functions of Parliament are also to be conducted. The public is vitally interested in this project,” HC further commented that the challenge to the ongoing construction of one particular project is ‘ a pointer to the ill intent and lack of bonafide of the petitioners in filing the present petition’.

Observing that the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) had on 19^th April 2021 permitted construction activity where labourers stayed on-site during the Covid restrictions, the court said a conjoint reading of the affidavits filed by the Centre and Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Private Limited (SPCPL- who is the contractor) revealed that arrangements were made to accommodate 280 workers at the site and that “there is no further movement” of workers from any other place to the site.“Since the workers who are working at the project are staying on the site, no question of issuing directions to suspend the work of Central Vista Avenue Redevelopment Project, whatsoever, arises,” said the Bench, while also taking note of SPCPL’s submission that several facilities have been provided by it to workers onsite like “residence/accommodation”, medical facilities, a  Covid care center and facilities for isolation and conducting RT-PCR tests.

HC further made an observation that work has to be finished within a time-bound schedule, for this essential project or af a project of national importance, can not be stopped when the conditions imposed by DDMA are not flouted.

The HC noted that the construction by several other agencies too is on in the National Capital Region territory. ‘ It is obvious that the petitioners have selectively chosen one project which is of national importance, namely the Central Vista project, whose legality has already been upheld by the Supreme Court (SC).

The centre had said the project in the petition is not what is referred to as “the Central Vista project” (which includes Parliament, refurbishment of the North Block, South Block, construction of new offices for central government), but is “limited to the redevelopment of Central Vista Avenue or Rajpath”, where the Republic Day parade is held.

It said the project at Rajpath involved building public amenities, like toilets, paths, parking spaces, four pedestrian underpasses, and the “improvement of canals, bridges, lawns, lights etc”. The new Parliament building is the center of this project.

The petitioners’ contention was that they are concerned about the spreading potential and threat posed by continuing the construction work at the project site, and the plight of workers exposed to infection. On this HC replied that they are satisfied bt the affidavit submitted by the contractor.

Seeking dismissal of the petition, the Centre termed it “one more attempt” to stall the project and called it a facade to “satisfy some kind of a vanity in mind of certain individuals”. “Such attempts are going on since the inception of the project under one pretext or the other and in one name or the other,” the Union government said.

In the end, Delhi HC dismissed the petition which had sought a stay on construction on it in the midst of a pandemic, calling it “ motivated and imposing on the petitioners a fine of Rs 1 lakh.

In my opinion, the ruling of HC is a welcome step otherwise it has become a  fashion that anyone who is against the govt on any issue, can go to court and file a petition in the court for stoppage of work. For this Central Vista project, there have been earlier many petitions in the SC, but SC dismissed all the petitions and gave the ruling that this project is within all the rules and regulations of DDMA.

Friends, it is fact the need for the construction of new Parliament took place in the UPA 2 govt, and in 2012 the cost for the same was estimated at around Rs 18,000Cr. The problem in certain quarters is that how the Modi govt can complete the project at a lower cost with the addition of so many additional buildings including North Block, South Block, and redevelopment of complete Rajpath. The opposition, especially Congress is unhappy with this project because they wanted this project to happen when their govt was there at centre, but at that time UPA 2 was involved in so many other corruption scams that this project was shelved. One more thing has come into the open that while UPA 2 had estimated the cost of only the new parliament building as Rs 18,000 Cr, now everyone is wondering how the complete project can be completed at a lesser cost with so many additions. Friends, you can imagine the amount of corruption this project would have generated if it happened during UPA 2.

The biggest problem with the opposition is that they can not digest the amount of development worked which has been carried out by this govt. There was one more charge by opposition leaders that during pandemic instead of spending money of vaccination govt is spending money on this project. But they forget that govt has already allotted Rs 35,000 Cr for the Covid vaccination in the budget, and two issues are not linked. The biggest worry for Congress is that when this project is completed PM Modi’s name will be in history as during his regime the project was planned and completed.

But Congress is not going to stop, they will try other legal angles to stop this project, and my contention is that through their cronies they will keep on filing petitions in the courts to delay this project.

Waiting for your feedback.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

1^st June 2021.