Contempt plea in HC against NBCC for tree cutting
New Delhi, June 27: A petition was filed in the Delhi High Court on Wednesday seeking contempt action against the National Buildings Construction Corp (NBCC), tasked with redeveloping six south Delhi colonies, for allegedly violating its undertaking to the court not to cut trees till July 4 for residential projects here.
The contempt petition was mentioned before a bench of Justice Vinod Goel and Justice Rekha Palli which posted the plea, filed by environmentalist Vimlendu Jha, for hearing on July 4 along with the main petition.
While hearing the main plea, which had sought setting aside of the terms of reference and environmental clearance granted to the project by the Environment Ministry, the bench on June 25 asked the NBCC not to axe till July 4 the 16,500 trees set to be cut for the residential project.
In the contempt plea, Jha alleged that there was "deliberate and willful default" of the June 25 undertaking given to the court by the NBCC.
He said that the alleged contemnor (NBCC CMD) had undertaken not to cut trees in areas concerned till July 4 but on Tuesday he noticed that the officials and workers of NBCC were cutting trees in Netaji Nagar in south Delhi.
A police complaint had been filed and he sought contempt action against authorities, the plea added.
On Monday, the court asked the NBCC not to cut the trees till the next date of hearing and the NBCC had assured the bench that it will not chop any tree till July 4.
The main petition was filed by orthopaedic surgeon Kaushal Kant Mishra against the Environment Ministry's order, saying that it would lead to felling of over 16,500 trees.
The six south Delhi colonies where the trees would be felled are Sarojini Nagar, Nauroji Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Thyagaraja Nagar, Mohammadpur and Kasturba Nagar.
All these areas are home to government employees where the Central government is pulling down houses built in the 1950s and replacing them with high-rise buildings.
Besides the NBCC, the project is also being executed by the Central Public Works Department.
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Voting for DU Students Union elections begins
New Delhi (PTI): Voting for the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) elections began on Friday here at the north and south campuses of the university.
Students from different DU colleges are casting their votes to elect new representatives for the central panel positions of president, vice president, secretary and joint secretary.
Around 1.40 lakh students are eligible to cast their votes.
Voting will take place in two phases -- students from morning colleges will cast their vote till 1 pm and those from evening colleges from 3 pm till 7.30 pm.
A total of 21 candidates are vying for the positions with eight candidates contesting for the post of president, five for vice-president, and four each for the posts of joint secretary and secretary.
The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the Congress-backed National Students' Union of India (NSUI), and the left-wing alliance of the All India Students' Association (AISA) and Students' Federation of India (SFI) are the key players this year.
The battle for the post of president is expected to be a tight race between ABVP's Rishabh Chaudhary, NSUI's Rounak Khatri and AISA's Saavy Gupta.
Rishabh Chaudhary, who hails from from Ganaur, Sonipat, is a graduate of Shyam Lal College and is currently a student in the Department of Buddhist Studies. Saavy Gupta contesting as an AISA candidate is a third-year law student at Law Centre-2.
The vice president post is a contest between ABVP's Bhanu Pratap Singh, NSUI's Yash Nandal and Ayush Mondal of the AISA.
The ABVP has fielded Mitravinda Karanwal as its candidate for the post of secretary. Karanwal, a third-year student of History (Hons) at Laxmibai College, is up against NSUI's Namrata Jeph Meena and SFI's Anamika K for the post. Anamika is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Political Science.
For the joint secretary position, ABVP's Aman Kapasia, a graduate of Hindi (Hons) from PGDAV Evening College, will face off against NSUI's Lokesh Choudhary and SFI's Sneha Aggarwal.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court has halted the counting of votes of the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections till posters, hoardings and graffiti that have been put up are removed and public property is restored. The court passed the order on Thursday.
Currently, the RSS-affiliated ABVP holds most seats in the students body with the posts of president, vice president and secretary with them. The Congress's student wing NSUI holds the secretary's post.
