AAP counters claim: Kejriwal cleared tree felling in Ridge area, alleges BJP

“Thus there was no space for the Lt Governor V.K. Saxena to deny approval… For the last two weeks Delhi Ministers Saurabh Bhardwaj, Gopal Rai and other AAP leaders have been raising the issue continuously, making the allegation that DDA felled trees under pressure from the Lt Governor. The document accessed by Delhi BJP clearly shows that Chief Minister Kejriwal and Environment Minister Gopal Rai knew about the matter and it was he who recommended tree felling,” Sachdeva said.

The AAP accused the BJP of trying to mislead people. “BJP is citing some questionable documents for felling of 424 trees of a different issue, while the Supreme Court is probing the issue of 1,100 trees in the eco-sensitive zone of Satbari. Why didn’t the L-G show this permission to the Supreme Court? Why are the L-G and DDA suffering humiliation every day in the S C when they have all the valid permissions… It has been mentioned in the SC many times the emails submitted by DDA clearly state the trees were cut on the instructions of the L-G,” the party said.

The SC on June 26 issued a contempt notice to the Delhi government through the Principal Secretary, Forest and Environment Department for clearing the felling of 422 trees while the authority concerned for this was the Tree Officer under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994. The bench wondered how the government could “usurp” the powers of the Tree Officer under the 1994 Act.