The government should rethink the central vista project and their priority should be to preserve every green area

The new building can seat 1,224 MPs simultaneously. It has a new building to increase the number of MPs in the future, while a new office complex for all MPs of both houses will be built in the existing Shram Shakti Bhavan. The new building will have around 888 seats for Lok Sabha members and over 326 seats for Rajya Sabha members. The new Parliament building will be built in an area of 64,500 sqm. For this, the project has been awarded to Tata Projects Limited. The new building will have the same shape as the existing Parliament. It will have a cellar, ground floor, first and second floors, and its height will be the same as the old building. It will have separate offices for all MPs and will be equipped with the latest digital interfaces as a step towards creating a ‘paperless office’.

The government is not thinking about the negative impact on the city

The Narendra Modi-led government is neglecting the environmental impact on Delhi due to its dream project. The government is giving the city a new face but this is going to be faced into granite, asphalt, and concrete. The new Government buildings will rise from the ashes of Jamun trees and several other heritage trees. The Prime Minister has been criticized for wasting too much money on this project and that too when the country is going through a crisis. When people are dying because of the shortage of oxygen, the PM is busy making new projects. This is a wasteful and unnecessary project that must take precedence over social priorities like health and education. For the lovers of Nature, this seems to be the greatest calamity. Unsurprisingly, the Central Government’s grandiose project has faced severe criticism from the lobby of Environmental Activists, based on the loss of lush green cover and supposed air pollution.

Also, it is a basic as well as fundamental Human right under article 21 of the Constitution to breathe in a clean environment, let its soul rejoice in oxygen-filled plant-filtered air.

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There are few ecological facets of the central vista project:-

The Buildings in this new project will be built on green patches of the Capital where in Delhi is already burdened with concrete and construction, that has to be halted when pollution and smog soars. The concrete and hardened roads are carbon-emitting and absorb lesser heat. This can significantly build up Delhi into an Urban Heat Island.  The government is saying about the new plantation of trees but how can we forget nothing will compensate for this when the city is already going through a crisis of breathing in toxic air. The air quality is already very poor.  The Project could compensate for this form of deforestation by compensatory afforestation nearby but new trees cannot even minutely compete with the older ones to caress nature. With those cutting trees, birds, burrow animals, and even their nesting spaces will fade away.

The demolition waste is another problem that arises from this new project. When the lives are choking to death and breathlessness induce, we will expect further transportation of debris by a huge number of trucks across the city. None has dared to calculate the consequent pressure on lungs with excess fuel emissions.

Another problem is a shortage of water. Delhi is going through a crisis and already made headlines for its looming water crisis. Delhi contains the Yamuna’s watershed area, wherein the water seeps within the surface and flows above it. Any possible project can create a barrier because of concrete usage. Groundwater recharge will be a vague dream in the area as the water held once in extensive roots of the trees to be cut, will vanish.

The State’s imperative under Directive Principles mentioned in 51A (g) to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures. But this government is possibly ignoring this

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