Panel’s first meeting will discuss felling of Aarey trees for Metro car shed: BMC to HC
MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday told the Bombay high court (HC) that its duly constituted Tree Authority will consider the proposal for removal of trees from Aarey Colony – for construction of the Metro-3 car shed – in its first meeting.
“The proposal will be taken into consideration during the first meeting, which is yet to be scheduled,” said senior advocate Anil Sakhare, for the BMC.
Sakhare was responding to an application filed by Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL), in a pending PIL seeking direction to the civic body to constitute its tree authority expeditiously. Advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, representing MMRCL, complained the work of the shed had been held up as the proposal for cutting the trees was still pending owing to the delay in constituting the authority. Sakhare told court that elected members have already been appointed to the authority and advertisement for inviting applications for appointment of experts will be published in five newspapers on Friday. He said February 26 is the last date for receiving applications after which the process of appointing experts will be completed.
The PIL has been filed by activist Zoru Bhathena challenging the validity of a 2017 amendment to the Maharashra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act that conferred special power on the municipal commissioner to act on proposals seeking permission to remove, fell or transplant up to 25 trees. He also challenged the number of such proposals allowing cutting of large number of trees along Mumbai roads. Bathena complained that last January , 49 proposals for cutting 806 trees were submitted in this manner. The first two proposals, for cutting 29 trees for a slum rehabilitation project, were split into two – one for 20 trees and the other for nine trees. Similarly, proposals seeking permission for removal of trees for Metro were also being split to ensure that those are dealt only by the civic chief and not the Tree Authority, he said.