The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had presented its budget on Tuesday, February 4. In the budget the BMC admitted that they had given the permission to cut 25,000 trees in the last five years. In a series of tweets, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Ashish Shelar took a dig at BMC for giving permission for the same. He said, ''Where has your love for trees gone when you gave permission to cut 25,000 trees? Why you have put a stop to the construction at Metro 3 car shed?''
Notably, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Environment and Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray have always been supportive of the "Save Aarey Movement". In his first press conference as the Chief Minister, Uddhav Thackeray announced a stay on the construction of Metro 3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) car shed.
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Earlier this month, Ashish Shelar had also alleged that Shiv Sena has stopped the construction of the Metro 3 car shed at Aarey forest because they wanted to allot the land to builders. Interestingly, in this tweet he had referred to Aarey as a ‘forest’. When the BJP was in power in Maharashtra, the pleas of the activists of declaring Aarey as a forest had fallen on deaf ears. They maintained their silence when over 2,000 trees were cut at the site.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena MLA Ravindra Waikar from Jogeshwari East Assembly Constituency refuted the claims by the BJP and stated that they're rehabilitating the tribals as they want them to have access to basic amenities.
Here are some questions that Mumbaikars must raise for Shiv Sena:
1. Where will the tribals be relocated?
2. What are the exact basic amenities that the tribals will be getting?
3. What will be the fate of the land after relocation?
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