New Delhi, Oct 23 (UNI) Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi, V K Saxena, on Wednesday filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court defending himself in the case concerning the large-scale felling of trees in the Delhi Ridge forest area.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud, Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, had recently asked the LG to explain how these trees were cut, despite earlier directives by the Court against cutting trees in the area without the top court’s permission.
In affidavit filed before the SC bench, LG Saxena regretted his action, saying that he was not aware of the requirement to obtain the Court’s prior permission for felling the trees until after the tree felling began.
The LG apologized and said that there was no intention to flout the top court’s directives and that how all of this took place was extremely unfortunate.
“The unfortunate event of felling of the trees on account of certain acts of omission and commission on the part of the DDA, without permission of this Court is deeply regretted,” the LG’s affidavit said.
The LG acknowledged that in February this year, he had visited the site of a road widening project to ease access to the Central Armed Police Forces Institute of Medical Sciences (CAPFIMS), when he was told that permission for felling trees is awaited from the ‘competent authority’.
As per his affidavit, he had called for the communication of such approval to be expedited, but did not realise that the Court’s permission was also required.
He only came to know that the permission was first needed from the SC on March 21 when a proposal of the DDA was received for the constitution of an expert committee.
The actual act of felling trees had already started around February 16.
The LG urged the court to discharge DDA’s vice-chairman, Subhasish Panda, from the contempt of court proceedings initiated against him in this matter.
LG explained that Panda was undergoing medical surgery when the tree felling took place and did not rejoin the office physically until March 12.
“There is no act of omission or commission on the part of the VC, DDA. Therefore, in respectful submission of the Deponent, the VC DDA may kindly be discharged by the apex court from the present contempt proceedings,” the LG’s affidavit said.
The LG said that compensatory tree planting measures are already under way.
In this regard, the LG mentioned that 170 trees and 4,000 shrubs have already been planted. Additionally, 200 trees and 500 more shrubs are to be planted on Gaushala road in next seven days.
The LG added that on February 14 a notification was issued by the Delhi government granting approval for tree felling under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994 (DPTA).
This may have been misunderstood by field officers as a go ahead for the tree felling, the LG said.
Nevertheless, a departmental inquiry has been launched against DDA officials, the LG said and all those found responsible for the project’s execution and a criminal complaint has also been filed against erring officers before a magistrate, he added.
The LG further emphasised that the tree cutting was for an important project (road widening for CAPFIMS) in which Rs 2,200 crore of public funds have already been invested.
Further, the actual figure of the trees felled is approximately 642 trees and not 1,100 trees as earlier told to the Court, he clarified.
As per direction of the Delhi Forest department, 1,000 trees of six feet have also already been planted as part of Project Kalindi Aviral (linked to efforts to revive River Yamuna) by the DDA, the LG’s affidavit highlighted.
Moreover, the LG recounted that the DDA had already pledged in an earlier affidavit that it would plant 100 new trees for every tree felled. The affidavit also mentioned three sites where this is proposed to be done.
