NAVI MUMBAI: The gardens department of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation has sent a show-cause notice to a Seawoods based commercial society for jeopardizing a healthy Ashoka tree with the installation of a giant hoarding just next to the tree.
The upper portion of Ashoka tree is literally sandwiched between the front panel of the hoarding and the rear metal supporting rods.
The president of the Navi Mumbai District Congress Committee (OBC division), Santosh Sutar, told TOI: ``I had recently complained to the deputy municipal commissioner (gardens), Dilip Nerkar, about the shocking erection of a huge hoarding in the compound of Haware Centurion Mall, Seawoods, which is actually pushing back the Ashoka tree. This is illegal, as no advertising billboard can come up so close to an existing tree. In this case, the tree trunk is being pushed back in order to make the hoarding fully visible to the motorists on the main road.''
Following Sutar's complaint, DMC Nerkar said that he is looking into this tree matter, and that a notice has been sent to the society concerned, giving them seven days' time period to reply back to NMMC.
RTI activist, Anarjit Chauhan, said: ``The local officials of the NMMC gardens department must also be inquired into as to how they allowed the tree to be compromised for this new hoarding. Already, there have been a plethora of advertising hoardings springing up in various city areas, which has also affected the green cover.''
Meanwhile, the civic sources said that further steps will be taken to safeguard the Ashoka tree at Seawoods.
