NAVI MUMBAI: Shocked to note that the verdant, tree-lined corner plot "P2" at Mhape Naka has now turned completely barren without any trees left, the former NMMC chairperson of the health committee, Raju Shinde, has demanded an urgent inquiry from MIDC into this illegal tree cutting.
The Navi Mumbai chief of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Ashok Gawde has also formally sought details from MIDC as to how over 150 trees were hacked suddenly without valid permissions.
"There were several indigenous trees inside this MIDC plot at Mhape; some of these trees were over 40-years-old. Fruit bearing coconut and palm trees were also here. How did MIDC allow 150 trees to be hacked like this? Why scientific transplantation of trees was not done? There are many such questions that upset nature lovers are asking. That is why I have asked for an indepth inquiry into it so that the guilty officials are punished," said Raju Shinde.
RTI activist Anarjit Chouhan commented: "There was no tender notice to reassign this P2 plot to another company. Also, the area of the plot has mysteriously increased from 10,000 sq metres to 12640 sq metres, while no permission was shown to activists on the cutting of all the trees."
The MIDC regional head, Satish Bagal, had earlier told TOI that this plot has been allotted for the bullet train project company, and that as per his knowledge, the trees were removed legitimately.
However, Shinde countered: "The press advertisement seeking public objections and suggestions for the tree cuttings at the P2 plot was published in a small newspaper called 'Thane Vaibhav' which is not read at all in Navi Mumbai. Why was a proper press ad not given in a national daily with a wider readership? I find all this very suspicious."
