Now, massive hillock carved out in Vikhroli

The levelling of a hillock in Vikhroli has become a bone of contention between citizens and BMC. While locals claim that ongoing construction activity near the hillock should be stopped immediately as it is damaging the environment, BMC maintains that the work is being carried out in a residential zone, despite one of their corporators raising a red flag over the environmental damage.

The corporator and member of the Garden and Market committee who raised a red flag against the damage being done to the environment is Suresh Patil. In his letter to the civic administration, Patil has alleged that construction activity is being carried out on a plot that is actually marked as a No Development Zone (NDZ).

The plot in Tirandaz Village where a hillock has allegedly been levelled. Pic/Datta Kumbhar

However, the civic administration stated in its response that the proposed work has been approved in a residential zone as per minor modifications issued by the Urban Development (UD) department. Patil remains unconvinced with the administration's response. "Even if it is in the R (residential) zone, the ongoing activity is damaging the environment and even posing a risk to citizens. The civic administration needs to deal with such cases in a more sensitive manner," he said.

Written to CM
Apart from Patil, local activist Ravindra Tiwari has also been trying to bring the issue to light, for which he has written a letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on November 13 2018, complaining about the hillock being cut. He has also written to the state environment minister, district suburban collector and municipal commissioner. He'd also sent a reminder letter to all of them on January 8.

The spot where hillock was allegedly levelled was also inspected by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board last year. Pic/Datta Kumbhar

The spot was also inspected by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) in November 2018 after they received a slew of complaints over the issue. "The MPCB officials in their report [filed on November 30, 2018] have clearly mentioned that the people concerned failed to produce papers pertaining to permissions for cutting trees [and levelling the hill]," said Tiwari.

However, after seeing no action taken on their complaints, locals finally approached cops on December 1, 2018 to file a complaint over the destruction of the green patch. Following that, Tiwari even sought to know the progress of his case under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. In their reply, the police administration mentioned that investigation in under progress.

While local BMC officials remained unavailable for comment, the owner of the plot in contention, Narottam Sharma, refuted all allegations saying, "The complaints are false and mala fide in nature."

Can't cut hills
Stalin D, environmentalist, claimed that cutting of hills is not allowed. "First of all, hills cannot be part of a residential zone. If hills are marked in the zone in BMC's records, the civic administration should rectify their errors. Allowing construction, especially by axing hills, is in violation of the orders of the National Green Tribunal, and is a decision that is going to destroy the environment and create ecological imbalance."

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