Supreme Court said it cannot brush aside "brazen acts" that lead to destruction of environment
The battle between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP over who was responsible for "illegal" felling of trees in Delhi's ridge area intensified on Friday after the BJP alleged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal gave the green light in January.
The BJP, based on a document it released, alleged Mr Kejriwal not only approved the order to cut the trees on January 24, but also made a binding remark that the Lieutenant Governor is bound by the advice of the Chief Minister and the cabinet in this matter.
Responding to the allegation, the AAP said if the BJP had the permission, why was it that the party has been facing humiliation in the Supreme Court.
"The Supreme Court is asking about 1,100 trees, but BJP is showing documents of 424 trees. These are two totally different matters," the AAP said, adding the BJP should have shown this document in the Supreme Court if it had permission from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to cut trees.
On Thursday, AAP leader Jasmine Shah said since the issue has surfaced, the BJP and Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena have maintained "silence" over it.
Coming down heavily on the DDA for the felling of trees in the capital's ridge area, the Supreme Court last month said it cannot brush aside "brazen acts" that lead to destruction of the environment.
"If authorities are not performing their statutory and constitutional duties, the court has to give a loud signal to all authorities that the environment cannot be damaged in such fashion," a bench of Justice AS Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said.
The court, which was hearing a suo moto contempt case against the DDA vice-president, also proposed a large-scale tree plantation drive in the national capital. This came days after the city reeled under an unrelenting heatwave that claimed many lives. The court told the DDA how a tree-protection law can be implemented and said it will give instructions to civic authorities to conduct a tree plantation campaign.