Mumbai: Finally, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has cleared the proposal to appoint experts as nominated members of its Tree Authority.
The Bombay high court (HC) last week granted the civic body one week to finalise the experts. The four members the BMC has finalised include two former members of the Tree Authority and head of the botany department, Mithibai College and head of the horticulture department, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
The administrative process of their appointments will be done now.
However, none of the four selected members are active members of NGOs registered with the government’s social forestry department, which is mandatory.
“Yes, the members are not registered but we cleared the proposal on the basis of urgency”, said Yashwant Jadhav, Shiv Sena corporator and Tree Authority member.
While hearing the PIL filed by activist Zoru Bathena regarding mass destruction of trees in the city, the HC last year restrained the Tree Authority from taking any decisions until tree experts were appointed.
The present authority has 12 members who are all corporators.
After the HC slammed the BMC for delaying the appointments of tree experts, the BMC invited applications.
Out of the total 37 applications received, five were selected, of which the authority finalised four on Monday.
