In a scathing revelation, Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena has been exposed in the Supreme Court for illegally ordering the cutting of 1,100 trees in the Ridge Forest Area without the required permission, according to Senior AAP Leader and Cabinet Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj. Despite the legal necessity for Supreme Court approval to cut even a single tree, these trees were felled in the Satbari Ridge Area. The AAP Leader further pointed out that the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) attempted to mislead the court with a false affidavit to shield the LG. He calls for legal action against LG V.K. Saxena for the severe environmental damage and demands his resignation for what he describes as a “heinous crime.”
Addressing the press conference, Senior AAP Leader and Cabinet Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said that this is the first time in the last 50-60 years that the temperature of Delhi has reached 52 degrees Celsius. All the experts believe that the biggest reason for the increase in heat is climate change and all this happens due to the lack of trees. A campaign to plant trees is being run on a large scale in the country, even small school children are being encouraged to plant trees. Even after planting lakhs of saplings, only a few thousand saplings can become full-fledged trees. In such a situation, cutting off 1100 trees illegally in a government forest area and the silence of all the officials of the department is extremely shocking.
Making a very shocking disclosure regarding the 1100 trees cut in this forest area of Satbari, the AAP leader stated that on 3 February, Delhi’s LG, who is also the Chairman of DDA, visited this forest area and a few days after his visit, about 1100 trees were cut in this forest area without any permission, without the knowledge of the Supreme Court. When an NGO came to know about this, it started investigating. The NGO’s investigation created panic in DDA and after cutting the trees in a rush, in March, DDA went to the Supreme Court to get permission to cut these trees. Look at the extent of LG’s DDA’s reprobation, that the trees have already been cut surreptitiously and now to hide their theft; after cutting the trees, they have gone to the Supreme Court to get permission to cut them. On 4th March, the Supreme Court rejected the application submitted by DDA for cutting these
“Two NGOs, ‘Kapuria’ and ‘New Delhi Nature Society’, which were investigating the case of cutting of these trees, both these NGOs approached the Supreme Court in May and told the Supreme Court that the trees for which DDA was seeking permission to cut in March, were already cut in February itself. The Supreme Court got extremely angry at this and reprimanded the DDA, saying that you have submitted a false affidavit before the court, whereas you have already cut the trees, nothing you say can be believed and a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court filed a case of criminal contempt against the Vice-President of DDA, Shri Panda and asked him to appear before the Supreme Court,” he informed.
The Delhi Minister mentioned, “Today, there was a hearing in the Supreme Court on this matter. During the hearing, when the court carefully read the documents presented by the department regarding the entire matter, the Supreme Court came to know about this through the documents and the court itself said that according to the documents, Delhi LG Vinai Kumar Saxena illegally got 1100 trees of Satbari forest area cut.”
Saurabh Bharadwaj conveyed that the Delhi LG, who climbs the mountain of morality every day and keeps preaching to the Delhi government, secretly got 1100 trees of us Delhiites cut illegally. It is written in the documents that instructions have been given by the LG to cut 1100 trees and based on only verbal advice, the DDA department cut 1100 trees in the Satbari forest area. No officer dares to ask the LG if this is illegal work and how these trees can be cut without permission. The last time before the Supreme Court, the Vice-Chairman of DDA, who is a senior IAS officer, had admitted that he had no information regarding the felling of these 1100 trees. Looking at these circumstances, you can guess what kind of terror the BJP LG has created in the DDA department and the Ridge department.
Demanding legal action against Lieutenant Governor Vinai Saxena, the AAP leader said that the President and the Governor have been given exemption in the Constitution because neither of them makes any decision on their own, they only sign the decisions taken by the government. But here the LG is continuously giving illegal instructions without the consent of the government and without permission, decisions are being taken on his own, in such a case, the LG cannot be given exemption, he should be sued.
“These 1100 trees have been cut on the instructions of the LG without the permission of the Supreme Court, for this The LG should be prosecuted and punished. If the LG is not prosecuted for the illegal activities he is doing, he will ruin the entire Delhi. The LG has committed a heinous crime of cutting down 1100 full-grown trees; he has no right to continue in his post. He should immediately resign from his post on moral grounds,” Saurabh Bharadwaj concluded.
