Petition against installation of tiles around trees: Court seeks reply from Ludhiana MC, LIT on contempt plea

The court of civil judge (senior division), Ludhiana, Harsimranjit Singh directed the municipal corporation (MC) and Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) to submit a reply against a contempt application submitted by the engineers’ body against the authorities for still installing the tiles around trees in different areas of city

During a recent hearing of the execution petition filed by Council of Engineers seeking implementation of earlier orders of National Green Tribunal (NGT) regarding removal of interlocking tiles around the trees, the district court has sought a report from the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) regarding the number of trees in the city.

Earlier, Council of Engineers had approached National Green Tribunal (NGT) for execution of earlier orders dated March 10, 2021 issued by the tribunal, wherein the Ludhiana MC, LIT and GLADA were directed to remove the concrete and interlocking tiles installed around one metre radius of trees. (Representative Photo/HT Files)

The court of civil judge (senior division), Ludhiana, Harsimranjit Singh directed the municipal corporation (MC) and Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) to submit a reply against a contempt application submitted by the engineers’ body against the authorities for still installing the tiles around trees in different areas of city.

The orders were issued during the hearing of the case on February 22 and the next hearing has been scheduled on March 16.

Chairman of LIT Raman Balasubramaniam also appeared before the court and pleaded that the DFO be involved in the case to identify the trees in the city from where the tiles and concrete has to be removed.

President of Council of Engineers Kapil Arora said the authorities are still not paying heed to the problem and interlocking tiles are still being installed in different areas of the city, including Udham Singh Nagar, SBS Nagar, among other areas. “The roots of the trees are being damaged due to this illegal practice of the MC and LIT. This is why we have also filed a contempt application in the court,” he said.

Meanwhile, Subramaniam accused Arora and others of deliberately sensationalising the matter for their vested interest. “We are not saying that matter is not important but there has to be a standard operating procedure for which I requested the court to involve DFO,” said Subramaniam.

Earlier, Council of Engineers had approached National Green Tribunal (NGT) for execution of earlier orders dated March 10, 2021 issued by the tribunal, wherein the MC, LIT and GLADA were directed to remove the concrete and interlocking tiles installed around one metre radius of trees. The case was transferred by tribunal to the civil judge for execution.