Bombay High Court unhappy with affidavit filed by PMC in Ganeshkhind road tree cutting case
Bombay High Court to Start Live Streaming Court Proceedings from July 7
Asks Pune Municipal Commissioner to personally vet fresh affidavit to be filed assuring compliance with Court’s orders.
In a hearing related to a contempt petition filed in the matter of tree cutting on Ganeshkhind Road, the Chief Justice took a hard stand on the Pune Municipal Corporation, asking the Corporation to file a fresh affidavit personally vetted by the Municipal Commissioner. The Court warned that any deficiency with respect to orders passed by the Court in its order dated 17 April 2024, while granting permission to remove trees on Ganeshkhind road to facilitate the completion of the construction of the flyover, would be taken seriously.
The original petitioners in the case had filed a contempt petition alleging non-compliance with various directions that had been passed by the Court in its April order.
These included transplantation of trees instead of cutting them, compensatory plantation of 5000 trees with 95% survival rate to be assured by the PMC and street plantation to be approved by a botanical expert. The PMC had also been asked to make this information available on its website on a regular basis and inform the Court about the progress.
Ranjit Gadgil, Program Director, Parisar, one of the petitioners, said, “We had filed an RTI asking about implementation of these directions and were amazed that hardly any of these had been complied with. The plantation on Ganeshkhind road seems to have been done in a haphazard manner and is blocking pedestrian access. The road department should have ensured that the plantation is done adjoining the footpath leaving at least 2.5 meters of walkable space for pedestrians. Even on a 45 meter road pedestrians are getting hardly 1 – 1.5 meters of walkable space which is even less than this in some stretches”.
“No information about the 5000 trees to be planted as compensation are available and the website that the PMC claims to have this data is not accessible. The trees have to be geo-tagged, yet even this has not been done”, asserted Ameet Singh, also a petitioner.
“During the hearing the Chief Justice lamented that Pune is fast losing its green cover, something we have been raising, so the lackadaisical attitude of the PMC even in a contempt matter is puzzling,” said Hema Chari, the 3rd petitioner on the case.
In October the PMC published another 29 dockets with provisional permission to cut 896 trees, transplant 968 trees requiring compensatory plantation of 32,600 trees.
“The compensatory plantation is not happening, as can be seen even in the case of Ganeshkhind road, which is being monitored by the Court. We are demanding that no fresh permissions should be given until all previous records are thoroughly scrutinized and records made publicly available”, added Ameet Singh.
