| 17th October 2005 |
|
First call comes about threat
to trees
|
| 19th October 2005 |
|
Mrs Saran. Mr. Saran, Mrinal
and Rishi visit stakeholders along the road. Principal
of St. Xaviers School and Kendriya Vidyalaya.
Mrinal and Rishi take a three hour detailed survey of the road till ESIS hospital and take
80 photographs detailing conditions along the road. Congested sections, trees marked for cutting and traffic conditions
|
| 20th October 2005 |
|
Local residents Vivenne Chowdhary,
Ram Singh, Mr. Saran, Mrs. Saran, Sunish Subramanium and
other like G R Vora, Jimmy and Rishi meet Mr. Naringrekar,
Gardent Supt at his Byculla office with photographs and
asking him for how the Tree Authority gave the permissions.
He details the official visits and procedures followed
and towards the end of the meeting assures that tree cutting
would temporarily be put on a hold.
In spite of assurance 2 big trees still cut in next four days
|
| 17th – 24
October |
|
All along we are in touch with
Mr. T Chandrashekhar's office
Mr. Naringrekar,
Mr. Hegde Dy. Suprintendent Gardens
Mr. Deshinkar - Chief Engineer MMRDA
Mr. Veerkar - Executive Engineer incharge for the stretch
MMRDA and BMC just kept shifting the responsibility to each other without agreeing to halt the cutting while a public consultation is held.
|
| 24th October |
|
We file a Public Interest Writ Petition No. 2539/05 in Bombay High
Court asking the Court to intervene staying the tree cutting till a public consultation is held
and certainly not allow any trees to be cut till the Court vacations get over.
In the meantime Mr. Hegde informs that a public meeting is planned for 11:00 am on 25th October
|
| 25th October |
|
First hearing for the Petition. Court orders a status quo
asking the MMRDA to produce its permissions for tree cutting. Next date for hearing set for 26th October.
Public hearing takes place at site near Kanjur Marg. Attended by Mr. Kirit Somaya, Ex MP and State BJP President
|
| 26th October |
|
Hearing gets postponed to 28th October
|
| 28th October |
|
Court is completely unconvinced with the permissions
produced by MMRDA, which is a letter from the Garden Department giving a string
of the numbers, which can be cut. Court takes a promise from MMRDA that it will
put a halt to further tree cutting till the mater is finally decided. It also asks
for MMRDA to submit a detailed plan of the trees it has marked for cutting based
on the basis of their potential to disrupt traffic or laying of utilities. MMRDA is
ordered to hold a meeting with the public and disclose its plans for the roads. Next
hearing set for 16th November.
Chipko program is organised, which starts from Godrej Staff Quarters Vikhroli and proceeds till Mulund
|
| 7th November |
|
MMRDA agrees for a public consultation meeting. The meeting was a real
eye opener and unfortunately was not held in May when it would have clarifies so many things and not
wasted everybody's time as it did. The flaw is basically not as much with the engineers who were executing
the road but in the planning process, which does not seek to involve citizens in planning for their needs.
Minutes of the meeting.
|
| 16th November |
|
Next hearing in the Bombay High Court
|
