Civic apathy forces residents to spend more on tree-pruning

Two weeks ago, residents of a colony at Napean Sea Road had to shell out Rs 25,000 to cut an overgrown jackfruit tree.

Two weeks ago, residents of a colony at Napean Sea Road had to shell out Rs 25,000 to cut an overgrown jackfruit tree.

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Last week, residents of a private society in Bandra had to cough up Rs 15,000 to cut a dangerous lady’s finger tree that was slanting towards the compound wall. Reason: delayed tree-cutting permissions from the ward office and lack of trained staff to complete the job. While the average cost to cut a tree could range from Rs 1,500-4,000, private societies have to spend almost three times the amount on account of administrative delay and the impending fear of heavy rain.

Even though the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is not directly responsible for cutting or pruning trees inside private premises, the onus of granting timely permissions and suggesting names of contractors to undertake the job is on them.

“Since there is no definite response time for the civic body to grant permissions and there are inadequate trained labourers to undertake the task of pruning and cutting, residents have to spend more,” said Ameet Satam, member of the BMC’s markets and gardens committee, which met on Tuesday.

Officials from the gardens department, however, said that they were not directly responsible for the delay. “For four months during monsoon, assistant commissioners of all wards are given the authority to grant permissions to private societies. The delay could be because of them too,” said Kamlashankar Yadav, superintendent of gardens, BMC.