Administration stalls axing of trees

PATIALA: Taking serious note of news reports published in TOI about planned axing of more than 700 trees for development of Rajpura colony near the bus stand, the district administration stalled the process at various sites in Patiala.
Work of axing over 1,295 trees was allotted to different companies. But on Thursday, Patiala deputy commissioner issued instructions to stop axing of trees with immediate effect.Authorities also started the process of a tie-up with a private company to transplant the trees proposed to be felled. However, by the time fresh instructions to stall axing of trees were issued, the PMC had already cut down nearly half the trees in Rajpura colony near the bus stand.
Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) started cutting trees in Rajpura colony on Wednesday and work was stopped on Thursday. The PMC is now busy making a blueprint to save these trees. Under the plan, PUDA will promote this Rajpura colony as a commercial and residential property.
PUDA wanted to axe and sell the trees, including sheesham, babool, mulberry, eucalyptus, silk cotton, teak and baikan at Rajpura Colony and the reserve price was fixed at Rs 16,60,183. Also, PUDA wants to sell 475 trees at the old office of the animal husbandry department at a reserve price of Rs 1,949,170. Sheesham, babool, mulberry, eucalyptus, silk cotton and baikan trees were planned to be sold for Rs 7,42,766 at the old PWD building.
"The process of axing the trees has been stalled and we are almost successful in tying up with a private company that could transplant these matured trees to some other place. There are old trees at the PWD resthouse, animal husbandry department, near IG railways office and heritage building. Proposals of axing them had already been made. There are over 350 trees in all the three sites. In Rajpura colony, over 700 trees are proposed to be axed. We are trying to save the trees at all the three sites. Saving trees at Rajpura colony has become difficult as most of the trees have been axed," said DC Kumar Amit.
In a bid to convince the district administration to save the trees being axed in Rajpura colony and other areas, a few members of the NGO, 'Patiala Our Pride' met Patiala deputy commissioner Kumar Amit and gave him a memorandum urging him to save the trees.
On Wednesday, another NGO, Peacock Environment and Wildlife Protection wrote to Punjab chief minister, chief conservator of forests and others urging them not to axe these trees.
Additional chief administrator, PUDA, Patiala Harpreet Singh Sudan said, "The process of axing trees in Rajpura has been stopped. Meanwhile, we are trying to tie up with a company for transplantation. There are very less companies involved in the business of transplanting trees as this is not prevalent technology. We can only execute the policy.
We will be burdened with a liability of Rs 4 crore if we do not come up with a Rajpura Colony where some people have already been allotted plots. The fear always remains with us that the contractor will stop work mid-way as we don't have plan B. There are few people involved in this business of tree transplantation. Unlike NHAI, we always have limited funds in which we have to manage everything."