SC asks Char Dham panel to discuss Defence Ministry plea
Context: The Supreme Court asked the Char Dham High-Powered Committee (HPC) to meet “immediately” and discuss a plea made by the Ministry of Defence that narrowing the feeder roads along the Indo-China border in Uttarakhand will cause “serious repercussions” to national security and urgent troop mobilisations.
Story so far:
- The Centre asked the court to modify its September 8 order to reduce the width of Char Dham roads to 5.5 m from 12 m to protect the ecologically fragile Himalayan slopes.
- The court had ordered Centre to plant trees in “right earnest” to recover the green cover “devastated” by construction.
Chardham roads’ project
- Chardham roads’ project includes the developing highways in Uttarakhand to improve access to the Char Dham (four shrines) — Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath.
‘Wilful non-compliance’
- Centre’s “wilful non-compliance” to comply with the September 8 order against building full-fledged roads cutting across the fragile Himalayan slopes.
- Centre filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court, saying the “situation on the ground has changed significantly” since September 8.
- The affidavit referred to a “recent face-off” with Nepal in Lipulekh side in 2020, saying all these sectors were “highly sensitive”.
- It urged the court to modify the order. It asked the court to allow feeder national highways from Rishikesh to Mana, Rishikesh to Gangotri and Tarakpur to Pithoragarh, which leads up to the northern border with China, to be developed as two-lane configurations for the sake of “defence of the country”.
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