Bhubaneswar: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) is all set to hear a petition about encroachments on flood plain areas of Mahanadi river in Cuttack district, Thursday.
This comes after a joint inspection committee, which visited the disputed area in the district, has given an adverse report and said that a temple has illegally been constructed and expanded on the flood plains of the river basin which is a ‘prohibited zone’.
A NGT bench comprising Justice Adarsh Goel and Justice SP Wangdi has scheduled the case for hearing for Thursday as per the Cause List of the tribunal. The listing claimed that the hearing would focus on consideration of the inspection report.
The tribunal had earlier passed an order and directed formation of a joint committee which could visit the site and verify the authenticity of the allegations. The inspection report submitted to the NGT claimed that such illegal structures should not be encouraged by the government.
The original petition had alleged that several illegal constructions were coming up near Rantilo in Cuttack. The petition was filed by social activist Dilip Samantaray.
The petition had alleged that the spree of illegal constructions is likely to threaten free flow of river water and natural process of flood water absorption during floods.
The petition had said that these constructions were in contradiction to several judgments of NGT and Supreme Court relating to such matters.
