The Delhi government on Saturday formed a fact-finding committee of three Ministers over the felling of around 1,100 trees allegedly without permission by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in the Capital’s Central Ridge area.
The committee comprising Ministers Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj and Imran Hussain will submit its report to Forest Minister Gopal Rai, a statement said. It will further be submitted to the Supreme Court, which is seized of the matter and will be holding the next hearing over it on July 11.
Mr. Rai, in a statement, said, “A shocking incident has come to light from Chhatarpur, Satbari, that in February, the DDA violated all rules and cut 1,100 trees without permission from any agency or government.The court is repeatedly asking the vice-chairperson of the DDA on whose orders 1,100 trees were cut illegally.”
‘Notices ignored’
“The e-mails of DDA engineers reveal that the trees were cut on the verbal instructions of the Lieutenant-Governor,” Mr. Rai claimed.
He said at a meeting of the Forest Department on June 26, department officials told him that the DDA was issued notices on March 5 and 22 by them on the matter but they did not respond.
The Supreme Court had recently found the inability of the DDA to unearth information or official records to shed light on whether L-G V.K. Saxena ordered the cutting of trees in the protected area as sheer disingenuity. The L-G is the DDA Chairman.
