Mid-Day: Pune: Friday,
April 11, 2014.
Two RTIs
replies have revealed the deep rot in the Pune Municipal Corporation's Tree
Authority and also exposes how the committee has been working hand in glove
with the builder lobby to ensure trees don't become stumbling blocks in their
construction activities.
The RTI,
filed by NGO Pune Tree Watch, exposes several rules being flouted, and also
raises doubts of the legality of its formation. The committee was formed on
March 23, 2014, after the previous one was dissolved in 2009.
According to
the reply to the RTI query, most of the associates have failed to comply with
the norms prescribed by the High Court. "This is an outright scam, as most
of the tree authority members have connections with some political party or the
other. It is shocking that in a cultural and educationally rich city like Pune,
the screening committee could not find suitable members.
By doing
this, the PMC has wasted lakhs of taxpayers' money," alleged Vinita
Deshmukh, convener, Pune Tree Watch, who filed the RTI.
According to
the replies, out of the 13-member team, seven of these members are not
graduates, a rule set by the High Court. In fact, the documents reveal that
some members have only passed Std VII to Std XII. Qualifications of the rest,
too, do not meet the standards set by the court.
Ignored HC
directives:
The court
specifies that members of the tree authority should be science graduates or
must have a degree in agriculture or environment, and that the members must be
associated with an apolitical non-governmental organisation (NGO), which is
minimum five years old.
The RTI
application, filed with the deputy director of Social Forestry Department
(SFD), Pune, revealed that not a single NGO has been registered with them as
prescribed by the HC.
The members
have neither submitted any documentary evidence supporting their educational
qualifications, nor given CDs and PowerPoint presentations proving their
involvement with their NGOS. They got away by filing affidavits when the
screening committee raised objections.
The RTI also
reveals that the corporators, while forming the screening committee, flouted
High Court norms, thereby questioning the whole process itself. The High Court
had directed that the screening committee should consist of six members.
However, in reality, it is just a three-member committee, Deshmukh said.
Retired Major
General S C N Jathar from Nagarik Chetna Manch said, "We issued a show
cause notice to the Pune municipal commissioner on March 27. The appointments
and selection were done against High Court's orders.
The Bombay
High Court judgment, dated September 20, 2013, says that the selecting
committee members should at least be science graduates. Automatically, the
committee becomes defunct, for they do not meet the criteria. So, the selected
screening committees and nominated NGO members have no legal standing."
He added,
"You cannot have 13 members as tree authority members and 13 more as NGO
members. None of the members have registered their NGOs with SFD. The selection
committee has ignored the commissioner's remarks and screening committee's
recommendations. A new authority should be formed, as the basis of this
authority is dubious."
The other
side:
Tree officer
and member secretary of the tree authority, Mohan Dhere, said, "It is not
a violation of provisions. The court order says 'preferably' and it is not
compulsory." When asked about the applicants, he replied, "It is the
sole discretion of the tree authority."
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