Delhi High Court blasts Ridge body over nod to projects in forest

The Delhi high court on Friday severely reprimanded the forest department — the third time this week — for approving the construction of an office building, Van Bhawan, and a new road in the Ridge area, ordering the work on both to be halted. The court said it wondered if the forest department’s Ridge Management Board was instead a “Ridge dissolving board” and expressed “shock” over the board’s decisions allowing rampant constructions within what is considered the “green lungs” of the national capital. Read here: ‘Will shut you down’: High Court warns Delhi forest department over non-compliance of order RMB, in a meeting held on December 11, approved the proposal to construct an office building for the directorate general and Central Record Office of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police on a 2.847-acre land at RK Puram; the headquarters of the forest department in the existing premises of deputy conservator of forest in the Central Ridge; and an approach road from IGNOU to South Asian University. One of the latest projects to be approved was on December 6, when CEC cleared a Delhi Development Authority proposal to construct two roads — Gaushala Road, Chattarpur Road to South Asian University ; and SAU to Central Armed Police Force Institute of Medical Sciences — in parts of the Southern Ridge between Chhattarpur and Maidangarhi to facilitate a series of housing projects for central security agencies.