NEW DELHI: Warning that “if Taj Mahal goes, you will not get a second chance to retrieve it”, the Supreme Court on Tuesday repeatedly asked the Centre and the UP government about steps taken to relocate polluting industries from the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) around Agra as directed by it in 1996 and wondered if there should be a cap on the number of hotels and restaurants operating in the TTZ.

A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta told additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the UP government, that in the 1996 judgment, the court had identified 511 polluting industries and wanted to know what was done about their relocation.

Additional advocate general of UP Aishwarya Bhati said 1,167 polluting industries, including stone crushers operating in Bharatpur, were identified and 460-odd were operating.

The bench said, “We want you to take everything into account while preparing the vision document for protection of Taj and its surroundings. Several things have to be taken into consideration and tomorrow you cannot come and say ‘oh! we forgot this aspect’. You must also consider what should be the limit on the number of hotels and restaurants that should be allowed to come up in Agra as they pose different kinds of problems apart from pollution.”

When Prof Meenakshi Dhote, project coordinator for the vision document, said her team had not been given correct data on industries operating in the TTZ, the bench said, “If the government gives incorrect data to the panel, it will come up with an incorrect vision document. If Taj Mahal goes, you will not get a second chance to retrieve it.”

Additional solicitor general Atmaram Nadkarni created a flutter when he said the culture and environment ministries had written to the UP government to declare Agra a heritage city, and said the state government was yet to respond. Taken by surprise, ASG Mehta said the the state had received the letter two days ago and it would respond after consulting all stakeholders. The court has posted the matter for further hearing on September 25.

