Delhi Cabinet Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj has urged the Hon’ble Chief Justice to read the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) affidavit, which he pointed out exposes the central government’s and Lieutenant Governor’s conduct against the elected Delhi government and its officials. The DDA, a central agency, admitted to illegally cutting trees before seeking Supreme Court permission, and its Vice Chairman confessed that 468 trees from a forest area and 174 from a non-forest area were felled without authorization. The Delhi Minister asserts that all officials were aware of the illegal activity, driven by pressure from the Lieutenant Governor, yet no one intervened, and now lower-level officials are being scapegoated to protect higher authorities.
Delhi Cabinet Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj stated that tomorrow, the case of illegal cutting of about 1100 trees in Satbari Ridge area of Delhi is coming before the Chief Justice’s bench of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice of the country will hear this case. “This is such a case that if the Chief Justice reads the DDA VC’s affidavit for just 10 minutes, he will know what the government in the center and the Lieutenant Governor appointed by them are doing with the elected government of Delhi and the officers of the Delhi government,” said the Delhi Minister.
Putting forth an important point related to this case, the Delhi Minister said that I have been continuously revealing this in my press conferences in the past, that the Executive Engineer of the DDA told the DDA contractor, who was ordered to cut the trees, through email that the Lieutenant Governor has given orders to cut the trees. When the DDA lawyer was questioned on this point in the court, he said that our email has been hacked.
Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, while referring to the affidavit filed by the Vice Chairman of DDA before the Supreme Court, said that he has apologized for this in his affidavit and said that they had hidden the truth from the Supreme Court, they went to the Supreme Court to ask for permission to cut the trees which were already cut, after cutting the trees, he apologized for this lie. This affidavit is also a proof of the fact that he has admitted his lies i.e. that hundreds of trees have been cut illegally without permission.
Citing the affidavit filed by the Vice Chairman of DDA, the Delhi Minister also said that the DDA Vice Chairman has also accepted that from 16 February to the next 10 days, hundreds of trees were cut illegally in Satbari Ridge area without permission. According to this affidavit, the Vice Chairman of DDA was on leave from 16 February to 2 March. Because he knew that trees were being cut illegally. And if this matter gets heated then its heat will reach him too, that is why he took leave in advance.
Sharing another information written in the affidavit filed by DDA, Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said that in this affidavit, DDA has also accepted that they have cut 468 trees from forest area and 174 trees from non-forest area. “Although our figure is about 1100 trees being cut, it is a big thing that DDA has accepted that at least this many trees have been cut. Although earlier the matter of cutting trees was denied. Now DDA has also accepted that their email was never hacked and this happened because DDA’s own contractor, JE and AE have testified against their own department,” he added.
Revealing another important thing related to the case, Saurabh Bharadwaj mentioned that the contractor who cut these trees has said in his affidavit that DDA’s Executive Engineer, JE and AE have been visiting this place regularly, that is why There is no scope left for the Executive Engineer, JE and AE and the DDA department to lie now. As a result, when the court asked the Executive Engineer when did you get the information about cutting of these trees, the Executive Engineer replied that I came to know on 28 February that these trees were cut illegally and without permission in the Ridge Area between 16 February and 26 February.
The Delhi Minister further said that similarly when the Superintendent Engineer of DDA was asked whether he knew what permissions were required to cut these trees, the Superintendent Engineer said that yes, I know that permission of Deputy Conservator of Forest and Supreme Court is required to cut trees in forest areas.
Saurabh Bharadwaj said that this lie was also being told repeatedly that permission to cut these trees was received from Delhi Government. In this affidavit, DDA has also accepted that neither Delhi Government nor Supreme Court had given any permission to cut these trees. When the court asked the Superintendent Engineer whether he knew that trees were being cut, the Superintendent Engineer said that I also had no information about cutting of trees. The Executive Engineer told me on 28th February that between 16th February and 26th February, trees were cut on Satbari Ridge. These trees have been cut down in the area.
Sharing another important thing related to the affidavit, Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the email sent by the Executive Engineer regarding the verbal permission given to cut these trees was also sent to the Superintendent Engineer and the Chief Engineer. So the question is that when this email was sent to those two officers, why did they not stop the illegal cutting of these trees? On this, the Chief Engineer of DDA said that I did not see that email and my PS prints out all the emails and gives them to me, but he did not give me copies of these two emails.
“This means very clearly that everyone from top to bottom knew very well that the pressure was from the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, there is no permission to cut trees and the contractor has been ordered to cut trees without permission. This is the reason why the Executive Engineer emailed and also sent that email to the higher officials because he knew that tomorrow if he emails only the contractor then only he will get trapped in this case,” added the Minister.
Saurabh Bharadwaj said that in this entire episode, the entire blame has been put on three lower level officers, which include Executive Engineer, Junior Engineer and Assistant Engineer. I want to know from the Lieutenant Governor that why would these small officers of such a low level cut so many trees illegally? What benefit will these people get by cutting so many trees illegally?
Asking another question, Saurabh Bharadwaj said that when it is clearly written in the affidavit that on the 13th, the forest department officials came and stopped the cutting of trees, because DDA did not have permission to cut the trees, then what happened on the 14th that the cutting of trees continued for the next 10 days and neither any officer of the forest department, nor any officer of DDA nor any officer of the police department went there and saw and tried to stop this work?
“This is a hoax and a conspiracy is being hatched to mislead the Supreme Court, the highest court of this country. An attempt is being made to fool the Supreme Court. I appeal to the Chief Justice of the country, ‘please take out 10 minutes and read this statement so that you can know the truth’,” concluded Saurabh Bharadwaj.
