The Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) is set to file a police petition against the contractor accused of illegally felling a tree at Kathrikadavu Junction along the Kaloor-Kadavanthra road while being granted permission only to prune its branches for public safety.
The felling of the more than a decade-old jackfruit tree had created quite a stir after traders who have been tending to trees along the road belonging to the GCDA staged a vociferous protest and locked horns with GCDA officials and the workers engaged by the contractor.
“We are treating the offence on the part of the contractor very seriously. How can he cut down an entire tree when permitted only to prune the branches. Even the pruning should have been done during the day and taking into account the opinion of people in the neighbourhood. If there was a dispute, further action should have been taken in the presence of police. We will definitely lodge a police petition against him,” said K. Chandran Pillai, GCDA Chairman.
Meanwhile, the police have already received two petitions in connection with the incident. While traders have lodged a petition for theft and damage to public property, a lady staff of the GCDA filed a petition against an office-bearer of the youth wing of the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi accusing him of obstructing public servants from discharging duty and verbal abuse.
The police are yet to register a case on either petitions. “We have asked the lady staff of GCDA and trader to come to the station in an effort to settle the issue. In the other petition for felling the tree, the police can’t take any unilateral action without receiving reports from the departments concerned,” said North police sources.
K.C. Suneesh, vice president of the youth wing of Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi, and against whom the lady official had lodged the petition, accused vested interests behind the felling of the tree. He was among the first to intervene in the felling and mobilise traders and the public.
“Earlier in the week, branches of another tree were found indiscriminately being cut down during midnight. When confronted, two ladies claiming to be GCDA officials had said that they had permission for pruning the branches. Workers were found on the same tree again on Thursday night and I was asking what they were doing when someone informed me that the jackfruit tree just a few meters away had been felled. It had borne fruit even last year and was grown by traders over the past 15 years,” he said.
Traders plant multiple saplings on special occasions and regularly tend to them. Often saplings are planted in memory of their departed dear ones.
