Army Cannot Throw Up Hands On Grounds Of Road Width; If Landslides Occur Despite Precaution & Mitigation, We Have To Tackle It: AG To Supreme Court In Char-Dham Case

"Will the army throw up its hands and say that a landslide will take place and therefore, we will give up this Mountain Road leading to the Line of Actual Control? No army can be heard to say that! That cannot be done at all! We have to live with it!", AG K. K. Venugopal told the Supreme Court on Thursday."Landslides are happening all over the country. We have to deal with them. And if we have to live with that, we have to use all our technology for the purpose of mitigation!", he continued.The bench of Justices D. Y. Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath was hearing the plea challenging the Char-Dham Highway expansion project.On Tuesday, the AG had told the Supreme Court that in view of China's new land border law passed in October, and its huge build-up of infrastructure on the other side of the border, the Char-Dham Highway expansion project now assumed strategic importance for national security, to avoid consequences akin to the 1962 Indo-China war. In his turn, Mr. Gonsalves said that the proposed widening of the roads is only to advance the Centre's "ambitious" Char-Dham Pariyojana. Mr. Gonsalves told the bench that the justification offered by the Centre that the expansion of these roads, which are being described as feeder roads leading to the border roads at the Indo-China border, is of strategic importance for national security, is only a ruse and that the Armed Forces has stated that it does not need the same. He had emphasised that any further widening of the roads would aggravate the weakness and the destabilisation of the Himalayan range and produce drastic consequences in terms of landslides and other natural calamities. On Thursday, the AG indicated that there is critical military equipment including, inter alia, the BrahMos missile carrier and the Smerch rocket launcher smirch which, given their length, need the wide roads to be carried to the Indo-China border quickly in the event of an affrontation- "The Smerch rocket launcher has a turning radius on a curve of 35 m. The BrahMos missile carrier is 42 feet long. All these are articulate equipment. It is a stupendous task which the Army has to undertake for the purpose of bringing the equipment to the passes, to the Chinese border, the Line of Actual Control. This has to be done come what may and in whatever situation- be it landslides, or heavy snowfall, or heavy rains! We have to fight! And to fight, this is necessary!""We are vulnerable. We have to do the best that we can. But we are told that no, no, no, there will be a risk of landslides, there have been terrible landslides, so please don't do this? Then what happens if we can't Take the vehicles up? The HPC report was in a totally different environment which cannot possibly be projected to deny the army what it really wants in its situation today!", pressed the AG."They have to take BrahMos missile launchers, which are 42 feet long and articulate! When it takes a curve, it requires a larger width! If it results in landslides, the army will have to tackle it. You have to take all the necessary precautions, but even after that, even if a landslide takes place, it cannot be that you cannot take the vehicles up on the road! Where would the BrahMos missile carriers go and how would we fight the war if it becomes inevitable? God forbid, nothing may happen. But we can't say anything. That is why the defence minister, presiding over the Naval conference, recently said vocally that we have to be careful, we have to be on our guard. It came in the newspaper. Therefore, my submission is that this petition was only with regard to Char Dham, it had nothing to do with the borders, taking of the troops etc!"The AG indicated the deliberations and notifications of the Indian Road Congress from 1998 to 2011 and so on to advance that the IRC had too agreed on a 7m wide 2-lane carriageway with 1.5 m paved shoulders for the military, para-military, security forces movement- "The IRC is a very high-powered committee. There was an elaborate discussion and examination by this competent body on this issue. And it was not meant for this case! A Truncated portion of its report was shown yesterday by which a certain amount of suspicion was sought to be thrown on the ground for expansion that the army needs this road! But please look at the constitution of this body, its composition, the beginning- meetings have been held from 1998 to 2011 and so on for the purpose of review! A truncated version was shown yesterday to claim that the IRC relates only to this case!"'2018 circular is a far-cry from what the Army wants'- AGIt may be noted that last year, the Centre had moved an application for the modification of the order dated September 8, 2020 which was passed by a three Judge Bench headed by Justice Rohinton Nariman, in order to permit the Union of India to make roads with 10 mtrs tarred surface as opposed to the 5.5 mtrs as ordered by the Court. The September 8, 2020 order directed that the roads in hilly...

Army Cannot Throw Up Hands On Grounds Of Road Width; If Landslides Occur Despite Precaution & Mitigation, We Have To Tackle It: AG To Supreme Court In Char-Dham Case

Mehal Jain

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