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Supriya Sule defends Lavasa hill city project

Supriya Sule

Pune: “This is a huge investment. It will cost a lot to the State. It has provided employment to thousands of people. So the Government should take a sympathetic view of the situation before taking any decision on the project,” said Supriya Sule, MP, defending the multicrore controversial Lavasa hill city project near Pune here on Monday.

Ms. Sule, ho is known to have stakes in the controversial multicrore project, was addressing a press conference here.

Ms. Sule's husband Sadanand Sule had 21.97 per cent stake in Lavasa Corporation Limited between 2002 and 2004. Ms. Sule is the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) member and daughter of Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. “Lavasa has provided schools to the poor, infrastructure and employment. I agree that there should be development, but not at the cost of environment. If there are mistakes Lavasa is ready to rectify and pay fines,” said Ms. Sule.

The statement comes at a time when the matter is sub judice with the Bombay High Court, after the MoEF sent Lavasa a stop-work order in November 2010, stating that the project had not complied with the relevant environmental laws. LCL challenged the order, after which an expert committee was appointed to inspect the hill city. The final decision will be taken after the committee submits its report to the court on January 21.

However, opposing Ms. Sule's view that the local people favoured the project, National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) activist Suniti S.R. said the supporters of the project were misleading the Government.

“According to figures submitted by LCL to the expert team of MoEF, only 419 of the 7,000 people employed in Lavasa are locals. The protest against Lavasa is also because of the large extent of land which was given to a private project instead of being allotted to the landless,” she said.

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Supriya Sule defends Lavasa hill city project

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