The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) has served notice to Empress Garden management and the Public Works Department (PWD), seeking payment of property tax arrears estimated to be worth ₹18.27 crore, officials said on Thursday. The board administration issued the notice on Saturday calculating the dues for the past three years where property tax has been calculated at the annual rate as per the Cantonment Act 2006.
PCB chief executive officer Subrat Pal said, “We have served notice to Empress Garden Management asking it to deposit the property arrears to the board at the earliest, failing which further action will be initiated.”
According to officials, the board has issued notice to both Empress Garden and PWD directly as the two names are there on the records of the PCB since the commissioning of the garden, which is located in survey number 500 and is a B2 land. Empress Garden is regarded as one of the lungs of Pune city and a hotspot of rich biodiversity spread over 40 acres of land near the Pune Racecourse. The park is dotted with several rare and some of the oldest trees with dense green foliage and is currently managed by the Agri-Horticultural Society of Western India. The garden is on long lease to the Agri-Horticultural Society of Western India by the revenue department for which the collector is the sanctioning authority.
Trust honorary secretary Suresh Pingale, when contacted, said, “We have not received any such notice from the PCB. The property tax-related issues are handled by the PWD’s building cell and we don’t know anything more about the notice.”
{{/usCountry}}Trust honorary secretary Suresh Pingale, when contacted, said, “We have not received any such notice from the PCB. The property tax-related issues are handled by the PWD’s building cell and we don’t know anything more about the notice.”
{{/usCountry}}According to the Empress Garden website, it was sir John Malcolm, the then governor of Bombay state who established a trust called the Agri-Horticultural Society of Western India in 1830. Some of the early members of the trust were the famous botanist Dr Birdwood, Dr Heddle, Dr Jagannath Shankar Sheth, David Sassoon and Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy among others. Ten years later, Bombay’s Rani Baug too was established under the society. In 1853, the Botanical Garden in Kirkee was established. For a number of years, the society was looked after by various committees and was under C D Deshmukh and Sardar Mudaliar at a later stage. Later on, sir Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy established Bund Garden in Pune. During Queen Victoria’s visit to India, the present garden was christened Empress Botanical Garden in her honour. In 1892, the Agri-Horticultural Society of Western India took over the management of Empress Botanical Garden Pune which is presently being maintained without any financial assistance from the government, according to the official website.
The trust comprises renowned rosarian, Pingale, as honorary secretary and Dr Phiroz Poonawalla as honorary treasurer. The trust is actively guided and supported by experts in the field like Dr Madhav Gadgil, renowned scientist and environmentalist; Vijay Kelkar, economist and senior bureaucrat; S D Mahajan, well-known botanist; Sumantai Kirloskar, environmentalist; Yashwant Khaire, ex-chief of parks at the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC); Sunita Kalyani and Ritu Chabria, both industrialists; Anupama Barve, ex-president of the Pune Rose Society; Amit Pokarna, rosarian and nurseryman; and Uday Borawake, progressive farmer.