Hakim warns against cutting trees, orders lodging FIR in such cases

Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has warned that if trees are cut for any reasons, including constructing pandals or for setting up hoardings, FIRs will be lodged against the accused party.

The warning comes after a huge Peepal tree was cut down by unknown persons in Ballygunge’s Rowland Row. The accused persons had identified themselves as workers of the KMC Parks and Squares department but later ran away when forest department officials arrived.

On Tuesday morning, Governor C V Ananda Bose visited the spot. It was learnt that a complaint regarding the matter had also reached Raj Bhavan.

However, KMC has taken a serious note of the matter and has also clarified that the ones who cut the tree were not civic body workers. An executive engineer was sent to the spot for inspection. Mayor Firhad Hakim has already ordered an inquiry into the incident and has sought a report on the matter.

Hakim is learnt to have also held a meeting with various state government departments where he clarified that trees cannot be cut at any cost. He said he has also instructed Debashish Kumar, MMIC, Parks and Squares department, that FIRs have to be lodged in case reports of cutting trees reach KMC.

Further, the Mayor has ordered that trees cannot be cut for the construction of Puja pandals or the installation of hoardings.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that a PIL was filed against the Governor accusing him of ‘breaking down the Constitutional machinery of

the state’.