Nagpur: Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) probably brought tree officers in line with The Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Conservation of Trees Act, 1975 for the first time in its history.
Nevertheless, this has also opened a Pandora’s box as all these years the garden superintendent managed the charge of tree officer’s position, a post that is below the assistant commissioner’s level. An officer holding the rank of an assistant commissioner or above should be appointed as tree officer as provided for in the Act. A lawyer has now challenged the legal validity of previously issued notices/orders by the tree officer.
According to The Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Conservation of Trees Act, 1975, tree officer has tree conservation duties, conducting surveys to record the number of trees and their condition, inspecting new plantations apart from managing tree felling applications.
Garden superintendent had been assigned the responsibility of tree officer in the NMC for decades. The garden superintendent post is equal to the rank of the superintendent as per the administrative hierarchy of NMC. Nevertheless, the rank of superintendent is below that of the assistant commissioner.
Garden Superintendent Amol Chorpagar held the charge as a tree officer and issued notices about cutting large numbers of trees in Bharat Van, Empress Van, and Smart City Project.
A couple of months ago, lawyer and social activist Ankita Shah had told the civic chief that the breach of the Act was brought to his notice. She had requested that all Chorpagar alerts be set aside.
Municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe rejigged the entire administrative structure on Wednesday, naming 20 department heads (HoDs). Three officers— Chorpagar, Mahesh Moroney, and Dr. Pradip Dasarwar — were charged additionally as deputy municipal commissioner. The deputy commissioner (garden) and tree officer are assigned additionally to Chorpagar.
The post of deputy commissioner is above assistant commissioner and thus the position of tree officer has been granted a validly ranked officer fee.
Mundhe’s predecessor Abhijit Bangar had turned down MahaMetro’s request to transplant Bharat Van trees. However, no action was taken on the tree officer’s notices regarding Empress Van and the Smart City Project. Therefore, it was supposed to set aside the notices but no decision has yet been made.
