Experts who quit over Aarey hacking set to rejoin tree authority

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) tree authority (TA) on Wednesday accepted the withdrawal of resignation submitted by two expert members in August.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) tree authority (TA) on Wednesday accepted the withdrawal of resignation submitted by two expert members in August.

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Shashirekha Sureshkumar, professor at Mithibai College, and Chandrakant Salunkhe, scientist at BARC, had resigned after facing criticism for voting in favour of felling 2,646 trees at Aarey Milk Colony to construct the Metro-3 car shed.

On September 19, they took back their resignation after the municipal commissioner Praveen Pardeshi asked them to reconsider their decision.

Abhijit Samant, BJP corporator and member of BMC’s TA, said, “The resignation of the experts was not officially accepted by BMC’s administration and there is no question of re-appointing them. They had resigned and then took it back. The withdrawal of resignation by both experts was tabled and accepted on Wednesday.”

Sureshkumar told HT on Wednesday, “I have always felt that work is more important. I want to contribute towards development by speaking up and giving suggestions. After the BMC clarified publicly that we were not involved in any wrongdoing, I have no issue re-joining. I hope we are allowed to speak more during the meetings.”

Salunkhe said, “I was satisfied by the BMC giving a public clarification that we were not involved in any wrongdoing. At the end of the day, I am a government employee and only doing social work. I am [re-joining the authority] only for betterment, and there is no personal gain or loss for me here.”

The BMC’s TA comprises four corporators from the BJP, six from the Shiv Sena, two from the Congress, one from the NCP, and five external experts.

On August 29, the TA gave its nod to cut 2,185 trees and transplant 461 trees. Of the members, eight voted for the proposal, six voted against it, two abstained from voting and two were absent.

Subsequently, two of the three experts who had voted in favour of cutting the trees said they were not aware of what they had voted for. Sureshkumar claimed that during the meeting when the proposal was passed, she was confused as the proceedings took place in Marathi. Meanwhile, Salunkhe said that the entire process was rushed. Both had then sent in their resignations.

The two expert members who were not present at the meeting were Manohar Sawant, PhD physical chemistry, and Deepak Apte, director, Bombay Natural History Society.