The BJP has alleged that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal approved the felling of 280 trees along the 2.3kilometer stretch of the Chhattarpur Satbari-Gaushala Road. BJP said Kejriwal led AAP-led Delhi government has “no moral right” to continue in the national capital.
Reacting over BJP’s allegation, AAP said BJP was misleading the public. The party said that 1,100 trees were cut by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), a department that comes directly under LG VK Saxena.
In a presser, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva showed purported documents signed by Kejriwal where he allowed 280 of 422 trees to be felled and ordered the transplantation of 142.
“Surprisingly, the document clearly shows that the CM and the environment minister Gopal Rai always knew about the tree felling, and it was the CM who recommended it. Rai signed the file on January 23, while Kejriwal signed on January 24. With the truth of tree felling matter coming out, the entire AAP stands exposed as a party of liars,” Sachdeva said.
Responding to the allegations, AAP questioned why LG VK Saxena did not show the documents concerned in the Supreme Court, when it pulled up the DDA during the hearing.
“... The Supreme Court came to know that permission to cut these trees could be given only by it, and no other authority... yet they were surreptitiously cut... After keeping silent for so many days, today the BJP has come up with some irrelevant papers... to spread a bundle of lies. If DDA and LG had permission to cut these trees, they should have told the Supreme Court on the first hearing,” AAP said.
Case: The case pertains to the illegal felling of 1,100 trees in the eco-sensitive Ridge zone, to widen the road to the AIIMS-CAPFIMS campus.
After the felling of trees, the apex court began hearing the case. Also, Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai also constituted a three-minister inquiry committee and asked the forest department and DDA to respond with documents. “Environment minister has been repeatedly summoning the officials, but the officials are not appearing before him... all officials are under pressure not to tell the truth to the elected government,” AAP added.
The matter is being heard in the Supreme Court, which has taken a firm stand in trying to fix accountability.
