By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court will hear next week a defence ministry plea seeking exemption from immediate payment of Rs.140 billion to the ministry of forests and environment for alleged damage to forests caused by army firing ranges.
While slotting the plea for hearing next Friday, a bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan also sought the ministry's reply on a Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) finding that the army firing ranges, located in forests across the country, were inflicting damage to the environment.
On May 11 the bench, which included Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice S.H. Kapadia, had asked the ministry if it was ready to exempt the Indian Army of Rs.140 billion for using 92 field firing ranges in notified forest area. The ministry is yet to clarify its stand.
Seeking exemption of the payment, the defence ministry counsel told the bench that due to the dispute over the payment, 58 of the 92 ranges have been closed down. The counsel said this was hampering the firing practice of the army personnel and their artillery training.
The counsel said the army has already paid Rs.200 million in afforesation dues, but it has no fund available to meet the rest.
He said that the army is not running away from paying the dues in case the court decides that it should pay up, but it should not be restrained from carrying out its military training exercise in these ranges. The firing ranges include one for the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun in Uttarakhand.
The counsel also said the army has a very good track record of plantation and forestation.