Carmel Convent tree collapse: PIL demands inquiry by high court judge
Through the PIL, advocate Kunal Mulwani, a resident of Sector 21, Chandigarh, has urged the high court to get the inquiry conducted in a time-bound manner to fix responsibility of the incident
The Punjab and Haryana high court has sought responses from the UT administration, municipal corporation and Carmel Convent School on a plea by a city resident, seeking an inquiry by an HC judge into the July 8 tree collapse at the school that claimed the life of a 16-year-old student.
Through the public interest litigation (PIL), advocate Kunal Mulwani, a resident of Sector 21, has urged the high court to get the inquiry conducted in a time-bound manner to fix responsibility of the incident and also appoint a committee to frame proper guidelines to be followed rigorously in a periodical manner to avoid recurrence of any such untoward incidents, especially in and around schools and other public places.
The plea also sought directions to the Chandigarh administration to plan and take all necessary steps to ensure safety of life and property of public, and avoid any unfortunate incident or accident arising on account of falling trees, electricity/telephone poles.
It sought directions to the administration to give statistical data of past five years in respect of the maintenance, identification and removal of trees that were threat to life and property of public at large, and data of complaints received in this regard and their redress.
The petitioner termed the steps taken by the administration so far as “mere eyewash”, and said as “a knee-jerk reaction” to the July 8 incident, the administration had only appointed a committee and ordered a magisterial inquiry.
Pointing out an ongoing blame game between the administration, MC and school authorities, the petitioner, through his counsel Chetan Mittal, said the administration could not shrug its responsibility by saying that the heritage tree was inside a private property and thus not its responsibility.
The petitioner pointed out that in September 2013, a 20-year-old woman’s leg was amputated after a dead tree fell on her in Sector 17, following which a petition was filed in high court.
During pendency of the plea, the UT administration had told the court that an exercise had been undertaken to identify the trees which had outlived their life and needed to be removed at the earliest.
The PIL apprised the court of the immense difficulty in getting trees pruned from the departments concerned and highlighted the absence of a schedule for regular pruning of trees.
While seeking response from UT, MC and the school, the high court asked which authority was responsible for maintenance of heritage trees and if there was negligence on part of any authority that led to the accident. The court also sought status of pruning of trees from the authorities.
150-year-old heritage tree at Sector-19 school axed
A 150-year-old heritage tree at Vatika School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Sector 19-B, was axed on Thursday after a UT survey recommended its removal earlier this week.
The survey to determine the health of all 30 heritage trees in Chandigarh was carried out in the wake of a tree collapse at Carmel Convent School, Sector 9, in which a Class-10 student had lost her life.
Through the survey, the 150-year-old mango tree at the Sector-19 school was found to be unsafe and infested with termites, making it dangerous during the monsoon. The school is located right next to the office of the UT District Education Officer (DEO). Before the tree’s removal, the DEO office cordoned off the area.
The survey also identified another heritage tree as dangerous – a 150-year-old peepal tree at the Government Nursery in Sector 23-C. It will also be cut down soon.
Report of dead trees expected on Friday
Meanwhile, while the report of a committee on dead trees in Chandigarh is awaited, the municipal corporation (MC) has so far found 31 dead trees under its jurisdiction.
Ten each dead and dry trees have been found in Sectors 29 and 30; nine in Sectors 2, 3, 7 and 22; seven in Sector 33; and five in Sector 13 (Manimajra).
The full report of the survey, also being conducted by officials from the engineering and forest departments, is expected on Friday.
