The Hindu: New Delhi: Wednesday,
February 01, 2017.
The High
Court on Tuesday asked the Delhi government as to why it has not complied with
an order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) asking it to furnish
details about the number of trees felled for each development project in the
city.
Justice
Sanjeev Sachdeva issued a notice to the Delhi government while listing the
matter for March 3.
The court
issued the notices on a plea seeking implementation of the August 5, 2011 order
of the CIC.
RTI
application
The
petitioner claimed that in 2013 he had sought to know the status of the
implementation of the CIC order by filing an application under the RTI Act and
was told that the order could not be implemented as the same was not traceable
following an incident of fire in April 2012.
The
department, however, had said that all concerned divisions have been asked to
comply with the order of the CIC. Thereafter, in 2015 when the petitioner again
sought to know the status, he was told that the divisional office has not
received the CIC order.
The
petitioner claimed that while the environment in the city is being destroyed,
the authorities were maintaining a “lackadaisical attitude” by “wilfully
disobeying” the order of the CIC.
In detail
The CIC, in
its order, had directed each department to publish the environmental cost,
including number of trees felled, of their projects along with details of
compensatory plantations on their respective websites.
Details of
permissions given for felling and pruning trees along with applicant details,
number of trees, reasons for approval and location, among others were also to
be displayed.
As per the
petition, the departments also had to display the “number of complaints
received on the tree helpline, number of trees cut, location of the tress,
status of complaint and status of prosecution undertaken, if any”.