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Builder fined Rs 5 lakh for hacking 21 trees in Thane.........Nitin Yeshwantrao
Thane: A builder, who felled 21 trees instead of the nine he was allowed to for the construction of high-rise towers near Patlipada on Ghodbunder Road, has been slapped with a fine of Rs 5.25 lakh by the Thane Municipal Corporation.
The notice, which was issued by deputy municipal commissioner S Bhatankar, has also directed the builder to now plant 105 trees. The owner of Roma Builders has been asked to pay the fine in the next five days, failing which, the TMC has threatened to initiate legal proceedings against him and will not allow him to go ahead with the construction till the court gives its verdict. The TMC’s Tree Authority had given Roma Builders permission to chop off nine trees for the project. However, a former member of the authority, Jagdish Thorat, realised that the builder was not only hacking more than the sanctioned number of trees but was also destroying all evidence of their existence. “The builder axed 21 decade-old trees including gulmohar, ashoka and peepal. He brought JCB machines to remove all evidence of these trees. I bought this to the notice of Bhatankar and a panchnama of the site revealed this was actually the case,’’ Thorat said. According to current norms, illegal felling of trees invites strict action and the offender has to plant five trees for each tree felled illegally. The rules state that the offender has to ensure that the tree survives for more than five years and pay a security deposit of Rs 20,000 and another Rs 5,000 as penalty. TMC officials said in the last seven years, 4,000 trees have been chopped by builders and more than 1,000 have been illegally felled. Those in the know, however, claimed that these numbers could be more than double the official figure. BREAKING RULES: The builder chopped 21 trees instead of the nine for which he had permission
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