Times of India: Pune: Tuesday,
March 25, 2014.
Applicants
from educational trusts and yoga foundations made it to the tree authority
while a recipient of the state government's environment award was left out when
representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were selected by the
Pune Municipal Corporation.
Right to
Information (RTI) applications filed by environment activists (copies are with
the TOI) have revealed oddities in the selection process. Six of the 13
selected are not graduates and candidates with doctorates in
environment-related fields were ignored in favour of a few who had passed only
standard VII.
"We had
hoped that persons with expertise in the field of botany, agriculture or
horticulture would be selected. What has emerged is very unfortunate,"
said Deepak Bidkar, who had also applied for membership of the tree authority.
The Bombay
High Court had stated that preference must be given to people with a degree or
diploma in agriculture, forestry or horticulture while picking a tree
authority's members. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) does not qualify as an NGO
that has a national presence.
The high
court had directed the inclusion of civil society representatives in the tree
authority in a ruling passed last Septemberon a petition that alleged that
illegal felling of trees in the city was rampant. The tree authority takes
decisions on the city's green cover.
"We were
shocked and dismayed with the final list of the nominees.
To see that
someone who has merely passed standard VII and has no experience in environment
was selected when some eminent personalities were left out, was
disheartening," said Major Gen (Retd) SCN Jatar, president of the Nagrik
Chetna Manch.
Jatar alleged
that the selection process was "entirely illegal" as it neither
followed the directions of the Bombay High Court nor the provisions of the
Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975.
Not only has
the educational criteria set by the court been flouted, but the final selection
also ignores the court's direction that the NGOs must have "a special
knowledge or expertise in plantation and preservation of trees with a minimum
experience of at least five years."
Municipal
commissioner Vikas Deshmukh (who is the chairman of the tree authority) has
admitted as much in remarks made against the names of some of those finally
selected.
The PMC had
invited applications from NGOs through advertisements in December and again in
February and received 66 forms. On March 3, a three-member scrutiny panel
shortlisted 29 names from the applications.
The names
were then placed before 13 corporators already on the tree authority in another
meeting held on March 12. They "unanimously" selected the final 13
NGO representatives.
"It was
our job to inform the corporators about the qualifications of each applicant.
The final decision was taken by them," said Mohan Dhere, tree officer of
the PMC when asked what selection criteria was applied.
NCP's Sushma
Nimhan, one of the 13 corporators who made the selections, said she has acted
according to the directions of the leader of the house, Subhash Jagtap.
"Our
party (NCP) decided on eminent persons such as Sachin Punekar and Arvind Gore.
The names that do not seem to meet the qualification criteria of the High Court
were suggested by other parties," said Jagtap.
Jagtap
defended the corporators' selection process. "They (the chosen ones)
assured us that they will work for the environment. The others (the rejects)
should have done the same thing. They had applied three months ago, what if
they had changed their minds?" he said.Jatar said that the Nagrik Chetna
Manch was examining the possibility of taking the matter to the court.
The Chosen
Ones:
Name, Education, Name of NGO
1. Sachin
PunekarPhDBiospheres
2. Babasaheb
Patilclass XIISaheed Bhagat Singh Education Pratishthan
3. Arvind
GoreBSc.Sriram Pratishthan
4. Shantanu
Jagdale BAMSVasundara Paryavaran Arogya & Shikshan Sanstha
5. Ameya
JagtapBDISYouth to Youth Foundation
6. Ajay
Shinde class XIIYogkshem Pratishthan (not listed with the Registrar of
Societies)
7. Govind
ThakurdeB. ComRanvan Nisarg Mitr (not listed with the Charity Commissioner)
8. Sudhir
NaikMSc.Shram Seva Nyas (not listed with the Charity Commissioner)
9. Milind
PokaleM ComSahyadri Vikas Mandal (not listed with the Registrar of Societies)
10. Dattatreya Polekar class VIIPune city
Congress senior citizens' association (not listed with charity commissioner)
11. Sandeep Mokate class XShree Sai
Education Trust (not listed with the Registrar of Societies)
12. Kaviraj Sanghelia Class VIISankalp Pratishthan
13. Jaydeep PadwalClass XIIShree Shivsai
Sanstha Trust
Left out:
·
Vinodkumar
Mohan PhDFormer forest official
·
Anupam
SarafPhDFrom Nagrik Chetna Manch
· Kusum
TamhaneMD, MBBSRecipient of Maharashtra state Vanashree award
·
Ravindra
PurandareBEFrom the Green Hills Group
·
Medha
JoshiPhDFrom Nisarg Sevak
Quotes:
We wanted a
healthy mix of NGO representatives on the tree authority. Some members have
high qualifications. We have also nominated others
Prithviraj
Sutar, Shiv Sena corporator
Our
experience with the PMC's school board, where many educated persons were
appointed, is that most failed to show up for meetings. For the tree authority,
we selected people known for their dedication to the environment. They will
give their inputs at meetings and work for making the city greener
Congressman
Arvind Shinde, leader of the opposition
.JPG)
.JPG)
