NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court on Tuesday gave three weeks to the Central Public Works Department to deconcretise trees in 15 government colonies under it. Justice Jasmeet Singh stated that failure to do so would mean the presence of the director general of CPWD before the court during the next hearing with an explanation.
The court also turned its attention to tall claims made by CPWD and MCD in its affidavits on deconcretisation of trees and decided to test it in Vasant Vihar.
It gave almost two weeks to both the agencies to ensure that all trees in Vasant Vihar have been removed of obstructions and asked the petitioner’s advocate Aditya N Prasad to verify the same.
In a series of directions, the court gave just 48 hours to the authorities to remove concrete structures from trees in the high court and Supreme Court, indicating that it won’t tolerate any further delay. The high court is monitoring steps by various agencies on removing concrete around trees.
Earlier, Delhi Development Authority had informed the court it removed concrete around trees at more than 9,000 locations within the city. The land-owning agency had said that it had deconcretised about 86,500 trees growing alongside roads falling under its jurisdiction and 759 parks. “The tree census does not cover the trees growing in forest areas as these areas have natural dense growth. It is, however, pertinent to mention that there are no instances of concretisation in these areas,” it added.
While hearing a plea on the alleged inaction by agencies over deconcretisation of trees in Vasant Vihar, the court had decided to examine the extent of the problem across the capital. Filed by activist Bhavreen Kandhari, the plea led the court to flag “victimisation of trees” and demand an explanation from the authorities concerned. The court had asked the civic body and the Delhi government why hundreds of trees had been concretised.
The court wants various stakeholders, including the forest department, to inform how many trees had been deconcretised in the city and steps taken in this regard. It had earlier issued notices to several agencies and sought to know the steps taken by them to prevent concretisation of trees in their respective areas.
The court also turned its attention to tall claims made by CPWD and MCD in its affidavits on deconcretisation of trees and decided to test it in Vasant Vihar.
It gave almost two weeks to both the agencies to ensure that all trees in Vasant Vihar have been removed of obstructions and asked the petitioner’s advocate Aditya N Prasad to verify the same.
In a series of directions, the court gave just 48 hours to the authorities to remove concrete structures from trees in the high court and Supreme Court, indicating that it won’t tolerate any further delay. The high court is monitoring steps by various agencies on removing concrete around trees.
Earlier, Delhi Development Authority had informed the court it removed concrete around trees at more than 9,000 locations within the city. The land-owning agency had said that it had deconcretised about 86,500 trees growing alongside roads falling under its jurisdiction and 759 parks. “The tree census does not cover the trees growing in forest areas as these areas have natural dense growth. It is, however, pertinent to mention that there are no instances of concretisation in these areas,” it added.
While hearing a plea on the alleged inaction by agencies over deconcretisation of trees in Vasant Vihar, the court had decided to examine the extent of the problem across the capital. Filed by activist Bhavreen Kandhari, the plea led the court to flag “victimisation of trees” and demand an explanation from the authorities concerned. The court had asked the civic body and the Delhi government why hundreds of trees had been concretised.
The court wants various stakeholders, including the forest department, to inform how many trees had been deconcretised in the city and steps taken in this regard. It had earlier issued notices to several agencies and sought to know the steps taken by them to prevent concretisation of trees in their respective areas.
