Feeling motivated to do something more?
Please use this draft and write an email to the authorities that are involved with the KRDCL Road widening project:
INSTRUCTIONS:
Create a new email
In the ‘To’, ‘Subject’ and ‘body’ fields, please copy the below listed respective material, and send.
For email draft on google doc: bit.ly/KRDCL-EMAIL
For more campaign details: bit.ly/KRDCL-BEDA
DRAFT BELOW:
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To: chiefminister@karnataka.gov.in; cs@karnataka.gov.in; min-publicworks@karnataka.gov.in; pwd.min@gmail.com; prs-pwd@karnataka.gov.in; mdkrdcl@gmail.com; cekrdcl@gmail.com; min-forest@karnataka.gov.in; prsfee@gmail.com; secyforest-fee@karnataka.gov.in; pccfkar@gmail.com; apccfdevelopment@gmail.com; apccffrm@aranya.gov.in; ccfeva@gmail.com; ccffc@aranya.gov.in; cfpf@aranya.gov.in; ccfict@aranya.gov.in; ccffrm@aranya.gov.in; priyadarshinihc@gmail.com; apccfvig@aranya.gov.in; rfobngwp1@aranya.gov.in; vidhyabp@aranya.gov.in; rfo1ictc@aranya.gov.in; pransudha@gmail.com; akshatha.06.h@gmail.com; rfo4ictc@aranya.gov.in; rfo6ictc@aranya.gov.in; rfo7ictc@aranya.gov.in; nethravathi@aranya.gov.in; eregowdak@aranya.gov.in; rfo2_ictc@aranya.gov.in; dineshak@aranya.gov.in; governor.rbblr-ka@gov.in; campa.y2010@gmail.com; ngt.admn@gmail.com; rg.ngt@nic.in
Subject: SCRAP ILLEGAL ‘KRDCL - Bangalore Surrounding Roads project’ - STOP ECOCIDE!
Dear Public Servant,
As you are all aware, the green cover of Bengaluru which used to be 70% just a few decades ago, has now been reduced to less than 3% by unplanned and unbridled growth. The city has exceeded its biocapacity and violated its ecological boundaries.
The Main reason for this is unplanned development, and violation of laws by our very own GOVT.
We just have no green cover left to sacrifice.
Continuing with the same culture, you have launched a series of decisions that threaten what little greenery there is left. The KRDCL Bangalore Surrounding Roads project is one such project that violates the law of the land. But the KRDCL has already issued contracts, including contracts for felling trees and for transplantation.
This exercise will result in thousands of Grandmother trees being uprooted, something that is irreplaceable for our already choking city! This is probably the last batch of old indigenous trees that exist in Bangalore and need to be declared as Heritage Trees', instead of felling!
In the COVID pandemic we have realised how important it is for us to safeguard nature.
We demand that this illegal project be frozen and the contracts issued be cancelled with immediate effect.
Here is why the project is illegal:
MAIN ILLEGALITIES:
1. Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, 1976 has not been notified in the Bengaluru Urban District and Bengaluru Rural district. Hence, as the necessary administrative mechanisms have not been established as per the act, the felling of every single tree is a violation of the LAW. The Govt is acting in violation of the ACT! This is contempt of the Laws!
2. “It is not right for any infrastructure project to be retrofitted into a non-existent plan. Currently, there is no plan for Bengaluru’s expansion,”. “Since there is no plan, you cannot push for the project in violation of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act. That is one major illegality,”
3. The Supreme Court had held that no project can be conceived against an original alignment. “If the government wanted to bring in the PRR, it had to amend the original plan in accordance with the Act, which it did not do.”
4. In the BMICAPA vs NICE judgement, Supreme court ruled that the concept of any project against any planning framework was void from the very beginning. The decisions by the govt go against the law of the land.
5. The project for road widening needs acquiring new land. But in this case, the widening is being carried out without acquisition of fresh land, which points to deliberate and planned destruction of trees!
Further:
a) There is no legal Masterplan for Bengaluru that has consultation with the Public and prepared by the MPC (mandated by 74th Amendment of our constitution).
b) NO DUE PROCESS.
c) The project is not part of the TRANSPORT PLAN, of the Masterplan.
d) Pointless: The project is a piece-meal, band-aid approach which will not solve any problem.
e) Harmful: The project will accentuate the heat island effect and lead to lowering the quality of living in the city, due to acute tree cover loss, increase in vehicles, industrialisation and pollution, and lead to more concretisation.
f) There is no Environment Impact Assessment done.
g) No alternatives have been studied.
h) THERE HAS BEEN NO PUBLIC CONSULTATION! Making it not just a violation of the law, but also contempt of the High Court!
OUR DEMANDS:
1. We demand that the project be cancelled for now, and all contracts issued for any work related to his project be withdrawn/cancelled, until all mandatory due process, and the legal criteria listed above is fulfilled as per law.
2. We demand that the illegalities listed above are not carried out in contempt of the law, in contempt of good governance, and in contempt of the people of the state and the country!
Please treat this letter as a notice via which the above issues have been brought to your awareness, and could be produced as evidence to the effect, in case of a Public Interest petition in the High Court, Supreme Court or the National Green Tribunal.
We hope you would take the right and sensible steps keeping in mind the law, public opinion and your own conscience!
More than 10,000 people have signed a petition expressing displeasure with your faulty decisions, and asking you to reverse your actions. Please visit the petition at http://chng.it/cWr2xYVM .
Thank you,
A Concerned Citizen