Mumbai: Cold war between MBMC chief and BJP members mars twin-city development

Bhayandar: The on-going cold war between the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) chief and elected representatives from the BJP-led governance is beginning to hurt the development of the twin-city.

Hours after ward committee chairman Sanjay Therade locked his office in Bhayandar (east) owing to staff crunch, 10 BJP corporators tendered their resignations to Mayor Geeta Jain on Thursday from their posts of panel members in the Tree Authority (TA) to protest the apathy of the civic administration for their failure in conducting a single meet since the formation of the panel three months ago.

Constituted under the Maharashtra Protection and Preservation of Trees Act 1975, the authority is supposed to hold a meeting every month to review the progress of various conservation initiatives and address concerns such as compensatory plantation against trees cut for infrastructure projects.

This apart from responsibilities including carrying out a census of trees, maintenance of nurseries, plantation drives and transplantation of trees. The BJP members were apparently irked as the committee was conveniently bypassed by the civic administration in context to giving a nod for felling of nearly 600 trees to pave way for a road development work.

In denial mode to any type of cold war, civic chief Dr Naresh Gite said, “We have decided to take a meeting and table the tree cutting and compensatory planting proposal before the panel. I was not informed about any grievances, however the issue will be discussed and sorted out.”

Headed by the civic chief, the 15-member panel comprises of 10 BJP corporators, three Shiv Sena and two from the Congress. As mandated the panel is devoid of qualified members supposed to be nominated in line with the eligibility criteria, thus causing danger to the preservation, protection, and conservation of trees, which is the primary object of the Act. “The general body gave approval to the names and the administration has no role to play in their appointments,” said an official.