Signing up with the department is a prerequisite to become a member of the Tree Authority
None of the city-based NGOs or experts are registered with the Social Forestry Department (SFD), which is an essential criteria to appoint a tree expert to the Tree Authority (TA). However, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Comission (BMC) committee had to bypass this criteria in 2012 while selecting tree experts, since there were none registered with the SFD.
It is in the ambit of the civic body's powers to tweak the rules of nomination as per a sub-clause in the Tree Act. It allowed them to nominate persons who are not registered with the SFD. Interestingly, the civic body decided to stick to the rule book during the 2017 nominations, as a result of which no expert was available to become a member of the authority.
As per The Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act 1975, A Tree Authority (TA) consists of not less than five members and not more than 15 members. Every Tree Authority may nominate representatives of Non-Governmental Organisations, who have special knowledge or practical experience in the field of planting and preservation of trees.
However, new rules were introduced on December 14, 2009, which mandated that any person belonging to an NGO being nominated as a member of the TA, must be an active and registered member of the government's Social Forestry Department and also have a rich experience of at least 10 years in the field. This change in the rule became the core of the current contention.
Last year, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's Garden Department asked the forest departments about the NGOs registered with them and learnt that there were none. "Though they hadn't exactly mentioned the absence of any registered NGO, it was indicative of the same," said a BMC official on conditions of anonymity. They didn't mention if any NGO or expert applied for registration either.
"This rule mandating nomination of experts came to force only in 2009, but since there weren't any experts available during nominations in 2012, the then Opposition leader requested the ruling party to nominate experts in their authority," the BMC official added.
LOOK BEFORE YOU CHOP
Tree Authority needs to deliberate when more than 25 trees are cut for development works
THE MANDATE
BMC Tree Authority is supposed to consist of 15 members, 13 corporators, a chairman of the Garden committee, and a municipal commissioner as a chairman.
Accordingly to a new rule, the Tree Authority meets every 21 days; earlier the time gap was 45 days.
A Tree Authority meeting is slated to be held on Monday, but the proposals regarding tree cutting will not be discussed in that.
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