New official appointed to probe Supertech twin tower map approval case

The Uttar Pradesh government has appointed a new official, Greater Noida authority’s officer on special duty Saumya Srivastava, to probe how Supertech got the map of the twin towers in Emerald Court approved despite the towers being planned in violation of building by-laws.

Srivastava has been given the mandate to probe and identify the culpable officials and fix responsibility.

Srivastava said, “I am yet to receive an official copy of the appointment to carry out the probe.”

Praveen Kumar Mishra, the Noida authority additional chief executive officer probing the issue, was on September 29, 2022, transferred to Lucknow.

Srivastava’s appointment comes almost six months after Mishra’s transfer, thereby delaying the probe.

Following the Supreme Court order, the Noida authority on January 9, 2021, appointed Mishra to probe the matter and gave him a week’s time to complete the probe. But the official only issued show-cause notices to officials involved in the probe. Since then, nothing has happened in the probe, said sources.

The Noida authority chief executive officer Ritu Maheshwari, who had written to the state government for a new official to be appointed in October following Mishra’s transfer, was unavailable for comment on the issue on Thursday.

Once the officials are identified, the authority will take action as per the Supreme Court directions, said officials.

Officials said the investigation may look into the actions of several high ranking serving and former officials in the authority that allowed the twin towers to take shape before being demolished in August last year, on the orders of the Supreme Court.

According to rules, once a developer submits a proposal, the architect and town planning department signs off on it after checking whether the proposal follows all provisions laid down in the building by-laws. In the case of large size projects such as the twin towers, the approval of the Noida authority chief executive officer is also required, said officials.

The matter was first taken to the Allahabad high court in 2012 by the Emerald Court residents welfare association (RWA) claiming that several rules were violated in the construction of twin towers. On April 11, 2014, the high court ordered that the two 40-storey towers — Apex and Ceyane — be razed, observing that they stood too close to each other. The Noida authority appealed the verdict claiming that no norm was violated.

The Supreme Court said, “The record of this case is replete with instances which highlight the collusion between the officers of Noida with the appellant and its management. The case has revealed a nefarious complicity of the planning authority in the violation by the developer of the provisions of law.”

Supertech officials were unavailable for comment on the issue.