NEW DELHI: Lieutenant Governor (L-G) VK Saxena on Thursday wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking action over delay in various important infrastructure projects and asked him to address the issue and fix responsibility for it, the L-G’s office said.
The projects include — the construction of the executive enclave of Central Vista, Delhi Metro Phase-IV project, GPRA colonies at Sarojini Nagar and Sriniwaspuri, meant for housing central government employees, construction of residential quarters for Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the Dwarka Expressway connecting Delhi-Gurugram and an EMU at Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station, said the officials.
For most of the projects, many trees were required to be felled, which resulted in protests by various civil society organisations over the years, stalling the work.“Several major projects have been held up for an unreasonable period of time for want of permission for felling/ translocating trees under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994 by the department of forest and wildlife. It has been brought to my notice that a significant number of applications seeking permission for tree felling are pending with the department for varying periods of time beyond sixty days. In some cases, the pendency is exceeding more than a year,” said the letter.
As per the norms, the forest department has to decide on tree-cutting/ translocation applications within 60 days. Officials said that the department has not cited any specific reason for withholding the permissions.“The L-G has requested the chief minister to dispose of the pending applications in accordance with the statutory provisions,” an official said.
Saxena has also noted that such unwarranted delays in disposal of applications regarding permission for tree cutting /transplantation are resulting in waste of public funds due to time and cost overrun of the projects for which accountability needs to be fixed, officially added.
“Considering the public importance of projects and the inconvenience being faced by several agencies, I raised the matter regarding an undue delay in disposal of applications for grant of permission for tree cutting/translocation in case of various projects of CPWD, DMRC, Indian Railways several times during my meetings with you, however, the pendency continues to persist,” the letter read.
“While appreciating the need to balance development environmental concerns, I would once again in larger public interest request you to look into these pending applications and ensure their disposal in accordance with the statutory provisions,” he said in the letter to Kejriwal.
Projects held-up so far
Redevelopment of General Pool Accommodation at Sriniwaspuri/Sarojini Nagar
Construction of executive enclave of Central Vista Project
Construction of Residential Quarters for Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)
Corridors of Delhi Metro Phase-IV
Dwarka Expressway
EMU at Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station