They alleged that the administration pushed the proposal without addressing objections received from citizens
A day after the Tree Authority of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) cleared proposal to cut and transplant around 2,700 tress in Aarey Colony for proposed car shed of Metro-3, the ruling Shiv Sena and the opposition Congress decided to approach the court. They alleged that the administration pushed the proposal without addressing objections received from citizens.
Yashwant Jadhav, BMC's standing committee chairman and also member of Tree Authority said he would file a writ petition before the Bombay High Court against the decision.
“The administration influenced experts to vote for tree cutting and did not bother to address common citizens' objections,” Jadhav said.
LANGUAGE ACT
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| However, one expert member claimed that she wanted to vote against the proposal, but she voted in favour as she could not understand Marathi language during discussion. |
Activist Zoru Bhathena said that they are going to move the court and will file a writ petition on Tuesday.
“We have got support from Shiv Sena and Congress and two NGOs who are also member of the Tree Authority,” said Bhathena.
Apart from BJP and the NCP, the proposal also received support from three expert members. However, one expert member claimed that she wanted to vote against the proposal but she voted in favour as she could not understand Marathi language during discussion. Shashirekha Iyer, a mycologist from Mithibai College said that there was commotion in the meeting and voting happened so suddenly that she could not understand and voted in favor of the budget.
“A decision on tree cutting cannot be taken in a hurry. I got a chance to visit Aaarey couple of times and even I did not go through all the documents like survey of trees. However, during the meeting, everything happened in hurry and because of lack understanding of Marathi language, I could not understand and voted wrongly,” said Iyer.
Ravi Raja, Congress corporator and leader of the opposition said that two Congress members were not allowed to speak. Praveen Pradeshi, municipal commissioner refuted allegations that the administration influenced any members and said that the decision has been taken for the betterment of the city. Meanwhile, some students also protest against tree cutting in Churchgate station by displaying placards.
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