Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders and workers staged a protest near the BJP office on DDU Marg over the alleged cutting of 1100 trees in Delhi's Southern Ridge area. The protesters, some of whom wore face masks of Delhi LG VK Saxena also carried cut outs of saws and tree stumps and formed a human chain.
They alleged that the Lt Governor of BJP-led Centre was responsible for cutting of the trees in the protected forest area in the ridge.
The Supreme Court which is seized of the matter of cutting of 1100 trees near Satbari in Southern Ridge has come down heavily upon both LG VK Saxena and the AAP government. The AAP has alleged that the trees were cut for a road widening project by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on the "verbal instructions" of the LG.
Meanwhile, the BJP claimed that the trees were cut after approval of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Environment minister Gopal Rai. Addressing the protesters senior AAP leaders and Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj claimed in a statement that in February 3 the LG visited Ridge along with other officers including Chief Secretary and gave "verbal orders" to cut down 1100 trees.
The Supreme Court repeatedly asked officers on whose orders trees were felled but no one told truth to the court, he said. Hundreds of trees on the Ridge could have been saved by taking 5-10 percent of land of nearby farmhouses to widen road, he said and charged that the trees were felled to benefit farmhouse owners. The AAP workers formed a human chain during the protest and symbolically hacked green tree cutouts while wearing masks with LG Saxena's face on it.
Party MLA Rajesh Gupta and senior leaders Reena Gupta and Adil Ahmad Khan were among those who protested.
