The Central Vista Is A Need-Based Project
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-01-08 08:32:16
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
Although the Supreme Court cleared the Central Vista project in New Delhi, the 2-1 verdict, in both the affirmative and dissenting judgments the judges pointed out several things which all governments should keep in mind when conceiving such grand projects and also laid down the boundary lines within which courts operate. They also pointed out that the petitioners were concerned about the lack of transparency.
At the very outset, both the judgments said that the court's mandate was limited to finding out whether the decisions taken by the executive were in lines with constitutional principles and did not fall foul of any law of the nation. They also elaborated on the development versus environment concerns. Finally, they also said that since the executive was accountable to Parliament, such policies need to be debated in the house.
Having said that, the court also acknowledged that "the challenge (to the project) was premised on high principles of democracy and not limited to mere infringement of statutory provisions". In this case, the dissenting judgment by Justice Sanjiv Khanna pointed out that the project must respect environmental and heritage norms and should keep the participative process in mind.
The majority judgment also goes on to say that since development and environment "are not sworn enemies of each other", the project should preserve "the environment for present and future generations". Towards this end, it directed that smog towns should be created and smog guns be deployed to mitigate the pollution from construction materials and that waste management at the site be subjected to constant monitoring.
There is no doubt that the Parliament building needs to be remodeled to cater to more people's representatives in the near future. The government also needs to house its administrative offices in bigger spaces and the 75th anniversary of the Independence provides a good time to do this. But any such executive decision needs to be debated in Parliament, the clearances should all be above board and keep both environmental and heritage issues in mind. Above all, there should be transparency at all stages and the public must be made aware of the decisions. Democratic principles, like wider consultation with all stakeholders, including civil society, must also be followed.
But those who say that such projects should not been taken up this year due to the pandemic are wrong. This is a need-based project that was in the pipeline for long and the timeline was decided keeping in mind the 75th anniversary of Independence. The pandemic happened later. This is not some wasteful expenditure that should be curtailed to divert the funds for the health emergency. Further, economists are suggesting that the government invest in infrastructure to generate jobs and kickstart the economy. This is one project that will do both. It will generate orders for the core sector and provide jobs to many. Hence, such nitpicking is not in order.
