Guwahati, Oct. 17: The issue of setting up an All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in Assam has reached the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

Four persons from central Assam's Nagaon district have approached the tribunal stating that if the AIIMS is set up at Jalah Beel in Changsari in Kamrup district, as proposed by the government, it will violate several acts pertaining to protection of the environment.

The tribunal will hear the case on October 23.

The persons who have approached the court are Sarbeswar Boruah, Hemchandra Bora, Ajit Singh Deka and Sohan Singh. Bora and Boruah are the president and working president of Madhya Asom AIIMS Demand Committee, which has been spearheading a movement demanding setting up of the AIIMS at Raha. The committee said it had approached the tribunal as its democratic movement from March this year demanding the AIIMS at Raha bore no fruit. Besides, it said the meeting with chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on the issue also turned out to be futile.

The committee said the tribunal has sent showcause notices to the departments concerned of the Centre and the state government.

The applicants told the tribunal that by deciding to set up the AIIMS at Jalah Beel, the Centre and the state government are violating the Guwahati Waterbodies (Preservation and Conservation) Act, 2008, and the Wetland Conservation and Management Rule, 2010.

The applicants appealed to the tribunal to set aside the decision of establishing the AIIMS at Changsari for the "preservation and conservation" of natural waterbodies as well as for protection of environment and ecological balance. They told the tribunal that the decision was "whimsical and bad" and "against the environment". ?

The applicants have told the tribunal how the Guwahati Master Plan 2025 has identified the Jalah Beel area as an ecologically sensitive zone and barred all construction on it.

Bora told The Telegraph that they had waited patiently for a positive reply from the Assam government before approaching the tribunal. "Recently, when we again tried to meet Sonowal when he had come to Nagaon, we could not sit with him to tell him our grievances," he said.

Before giving conditional approval to set up the AIIMS at Changsari, the Union government had recommended Raha as the ideal place for the AIIMS.

The issue has even reached the table of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Guwahati-based consulting engineer J.N. Khataniar in August wrote to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention. "As the Prime Minister is a straightforward person I hoped he would take up the matter seriously. Based on my application, the PMO had written to the secretary of health and family welfare of the Centre to take appropriate action. I am waiting for that," he said.