Activist turns to CM over decision to exclude 8 villages from Narnaul MC

Ravinder Saini
Tribune News Service
Mahendragarh, April 10

The CM Window has received a complaint against the move of the Narnaul municipal council (MC) to exclude eight villages — Meerpur, Kojinda, Shapur-Awal, Raghunathpura, Kirarod Afgan, Tajipur, Lutufpur (‘bechirag’) and Rashulpur (‘bechirag’) — from its limits.

The complaint alleges that it’s a bid to protect several stone-crushing units located in the MC limits in violation of rules as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered the authorities concerned to check all such units in the district.

“As many as 12 villages were included in the Narnaul MC limits around one and a half years ago, but the authorities suddenly initiated the process to exclude eight of them, as over 10 stone-crushing units are being run in these villages. As per norms, no such unit can be set up within 1.5-km radius of the MC,” said Tejpal Yadav, the complainant.

Yadav said he had approached the NGT in September against three stone-crushing units being run in Khatoli Jat and Kaarota villages in violation of rules. The NGT, in December, directed the authorities to conduct physical inspection of all units in the district to find if there was any violation, he said.

“Since over 10 such units are operational within the radius of 1.5 km of the MC, the move to exclude the villages from the MC limit will protect them from action,” he said.

He said Tajpur, which is a ‘bechirag’ (without population) village and far from Narnaul, was in the MC limits, but Lutufpur (bechirag) and Rasulpur (bechirag) villages that were close to the town were being excluded from the MC limits. He alleged that Lutufpur and Rasulpur had been excluded as several stone-crushing units were located near these two villages.

Hemant Kumar, executive engineer of the council, said the villages were being excluded from the MC limits on the demand of their gram panchayats. People of some villages had also raised the demand before the CM, he said.

Complaint filed with CM Window

• A complaint filed at the CM Window against the exclusion of eight villages from the Narnaul municipal council (MC) limits alleges that it’s a bid to protect several stone-crushing units located in these areas
• The National Green Tribunal has ordered the authorities concerned to check all such units in the district
• The complainant said 12 villages were included in the MC limits around one-and-half years ago, but the authorities suddenly initiated the process to exclude eight of them, as over 10 stone-crushing units are being run in these villages
• As per norms, no such unit can be set up within 1.5-km radius of the MC