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Illegal axing of trees: Mohali ADC recommends action against Lalru MC president, then EO
In report sent to Punjab local bodies dept, Mohali additional deputy commissioner highlights procedural lapses, but says no financial loss took place
A month after indicting Lalru municipal council president Bindu Rana and then executive officer (EO) Ashok Kumar for illegal cutting of trees on 10 acres of shamlat land in Lalru in November last, Mohali additional deputy commissioner Pooja Sayal Grewal has recommended action against both officials in her final report.
In the final report sent to the principal secretary, local bodies department, Punjab, Grewal has stated that though there were procedural lapses in the cutting of trees, no financial loss took place.
The report detailed that both officials did not take any permission to cut the trees, neither from the forest department nor from the MC House.
On the other hand, Lalru MC president Bindu Rana said, “I have no role in the matter. It’s just petty politics by the SAD MLA to defame the Congress. Moreover, the report found no financial loss.”
In November 2021, Dera Bassi MLA NK Sharma had alleged that the MC had sold the axed trees, worth several lakhs, for just ₹2.25 lakh to benefit some private persons.
He had claimed that during his visit to the spot, he saw many large trees, with a diameter of about two-and-a-half feet, being axed by around 50 people.
“The whole business was going on without the approval of the forest department. As per rules, a written assessment was to be done by the forest department before giving permission for cutting trees on shamlat land, after which advertisement for auctioning of trees was to be issued,” the MLA had said.
EO Ashok Kumar was shunted out the same day and sent to the head office in Sector 35, Chandigarh. The next day, an inquiry was marked. Even the block officer of the forest department had confirmed that the matter regarding clearance for axing the trees was not in his notice.
