Lavasa Corp slams Jairam Ramesh; to move HC
30 Nov 2010
Lavasa Corporation Ltd, a subsidiary of Hindustan Construction Co Ltd, is planning to move the Bombay High Court regarding the ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) notice asking it to stop construction of its township project near Pune.
Lavasa recently received an approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India for its proposed initial public offering.
Lavasa has said that the ministry had not sought a similar environmental clearance from the Sahara-sponsored Ambey Valley project.
The MoEF has slapped a show cause notice on Lavasa Corp and has also asked the company to stop construction work at its site.
In its reply to the show cause notice, Lavasa has accused union environment minister Jairam Ramesh of acting with malafide intent. He issued the notice in haste, breaching the ''principles of natural justice'', it said.
''Our clients deny each and every allegation made by you in the above notice,'' the reply by Agarwal Law Associates, representing the Lavasa, said.
It claimed that Ramesh took the decision because of pressure from ''political activists'' like Medha Patkar. The notice was issued with the motive of causing huge irreparable financial loss to Lavasa. The notice came at an important time when LCL was about to go in for an IPO of close to Rs2,000 crore, it said.
