Not mandatory to upload permission online: BMC, MMRC

Even as citizens continued to protest the felling of trees in Aarey Milk Colony for the Metro-3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) car shed on Saturday, city authorities maintained

Even as citizens continued to protest the felling of trees in Aarey Milk Colony for the Metro-3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) car shed on Saturday, city authorities maintained that the work was undertaken within the permits of law.

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While activists contended that authorities must wait for 15 days after the order permitting the tree-cutting is uploaded to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) website, civic chief Praveen Pardeshi clarified that the stipulated waiting period is only for the permission being issued, which was done on September 13, 2019. The order was uploaded on Friday evening.

“There is no mandatory provision in the act of uploading the permission online,” Pardeshi said. He referred to the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act 1975. As per provisions under section 8 (3)(a) of the Act, “No tree shall be cut/transplanted until 15 days after the permission is given by the tree authority.” The BMC’s tree authority issued permissions to fell 2,185 trees, transplant 461 and retain 1,045 trees in a letter dated September 13 to the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), which is executing the project.

Pardeshi also said that there is no rule about cutting trees after sunset as authorities were heavily frowned upon for cutting trees at night. He further said that MMRC had assured the Bombay high court (HC) that no tree will be cut until the court decides on the matter and the verdict was out on Friday morning.

Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) did not release any statement on Friday or Saturday. However, managing director Ashwini Bhide, tweeted on Friday that a waiting period of 15 days after the tree-cutting permissions were uploaded on the website was “false propaganda”. Despite repeated attempts, Bhide was not available for comment on Saturday.