NGT order: Mohali court issues fresh summons to ex-MC commissioner KK Garg

After former municipal corporation commissioner KK Garg failed to appear before a court in Mohali on Tuesday, the court sent him fresh summons for January 3.

After former municipal corporation commissioner KK Garg failed to appear before a court in Mohali on Tuesday, the court sent him fresh summons for January 3.

Garg was slated to appear before the Mohali court over his alleged failure to comply with the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT’s) 2019 orders pertaining to removal of concrete from around trees. However, he did not receive the summons as they had been sent to the Mohali municipal corporation. (Representational Image/HT File)

Garg was slated to appear before the Mohali court over his alleged failure to comply with the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT’s) 2019 orders pertaining to removal of concrete from around trees. However, he did not receive the summons as they had been sent to the Mohali municipal corporation. Navjot Kaur had replaced Garg as MC commissioner in May this year, while he was posted as deputy secretary, Housing and Urban Development.

An MC official told the court that the summon was delivered at the wrong address. On October 28, judicial magistrate Jagjit Singh had asked Garg to appear in court on November 29. Till then, MC authorities had only removed concrete from around 1,600 trees. In 2019, as many as 11,919 of 40,925 trees in Mohali had concrete blocks around their trunks.

The civic body has removed concrete blocks within one-metre radius of 3,379 trees since last month. In November 2019, NGT had disposed of a complaint by Mohali-based non-governmental organisation, Environment Protection Society, and directed municipal authorities in Mohali to take requisite measures to protect trees.

However, the society moved to court in February this year through its president HS Minhas, who retired as the chief engineer of the Punjab irrigation department, seeking action against Garg, who was MC commissioner from December 2019 to May 2022, for failing to comply with the court’s orders.

The order

The Green Tribunal in 2019 ordered:

1) Removal of concrete, bitumen, paver blocks within one metre of trees without damaging their roots

2) No construction, concreting, repairing work within one metre radius of trees

3) Measures to prevent defacement of trees

4) Immediate removal of all signboards, advertisements and cables

5) Replacement of trees that died due to the concretisation

6) Maintenance of enumeration register of existing trees, which should be updated annually

7) Senior municipal officers personally responsible for carrying out the orders.