Kalina lady injured in tree fall to be compensated by BMC

While more people fall victims to unpruned trees falling on them, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the housing societies are pointing fingers at each other. The civic body alleges housing societies don’t take action and the societies say the BMC takes its own sweet time in granting permission to trim the trees. Nearly four cases of tree collapses were reported in housing societies over last two months, the most recent being that of a Kalina resident, Annie Fernandes (37), who sustained grievous injuries when a tree fell on her. The BMC drew flak for the incidents and it decided to take action on the housing societies. The BMC has given a 15-day deadline to societies to prune overgrown trees or cough up Rs 5,000 as penalty. . A lot of cars are parked under them, and children play in the compound in the evenings. So if a branch falls, someone is likely to get hurt. Also, to trim a tree, one needs to take permission from the BMC which sometimes takes more than two months.

It was a month ago, Annie Fernandes, 37 years and a widow resides at Kolivery Village, Kalina. On that fateful day while she was crossing the road a tree fell on her. She was grievously injured and was lying at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Hospital where she underwent treatment. Annie being a widow lost her husband about 3 months ago and has a 2 year-old child. Her father works as an employee in the office of Our Lady of Egypt Church, Kalina.

After the accident, the Asst. Commissioner and Engineer, Garden dept visited the site. But when the time came to paying the injured lady compensation it is alleged that the Asst. Commissioner showed reluctance. However, Rev. Fr. Adrian Ferreira, Parish Priest, Our Lady of Egypt, Kalina intervened and shot a letter to the Corporator, Alice Therattil. After a lot of persuasion and follow-up by Alice Therattil with the Mayor, garden Dept of BMC, Municipal Commissioner, Anand Walhalkar, AMC and C.B.Rokade, DMC she finally managed to get an amount of Rs 50,000 cleared by BMC for the injured Annie Fernandes.

As per report in the media it was mentioned that BMC is ready to pay Rs one Lakh to relatives of dead and Rs 50,000 to injured. Hence, in this case-Why should Annie Fernandes not be compensated by BMC? While confirming with Alice Therattil she spoke to Santacruz Patrika and said, “After a lot of persuasion with BMC I finally managed to get compensation sanctioned for Annie Fernandes.” When asked if Annie has received the payment Alice replied that she will be receiving the compensation shortly.

The biggest hurdle to this problem is that trees are not allowed to be trimmed or cut without BMC’s permission. According to the rules, the permission should be granted within 30 days. However, there are hardly any cases where the permission is given within that period. This delay can sometimes lead to accidents. The recent accidents have made the BMC conscious and they want to take all the precautionary steps so that no other mishaps occur in the future and they don’t have to compensate anyone.
While clarifying with an Asst Commissioner of BMC on tree cutting or trimming he said, “First and foremost, everyone needs to know that every single tree in the city belongs to the BMC because it has been registered under the tree census. Even if the tree is in one’s housing society, one cannot cut or trim it without permission from the civic body. And to take permission, citizens need to take a photograph of the society with an application for trimming the branches.”