Despite Ranchi Deputy Commissioner Manoj Kumar ordering officials, including SDOs, BDOs and other departments concerned to cut down worn trees, no one has initiated cutting aged, leaned and worn out trees down, which if done on time, could have saved at least half a dozen lives recently. The level of ignorance and lack of inter-departmental coordination stands so firm, deep rooted and tall that some 15 such trees in city area itself identified by Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) some time back were left to fall on passer-bys as forest department clearance couldn’t be acquired on time, and one of them actually fell and took at least three lives on Ratu Road on Tuesday this week.
“It is true that taking all clearances from the forest department and others, if involved any, before cutting a tree consumes time and leave enough space for an accident like the one took place on Ratu Road. This is why I had asked SDOs and BDOs to initiate process of cutting such dangerous trees alongside roads and important places down even keep the process of taking forest department clearance process on meanwhile,” said DC Manoj Kumar.
However, RMC officials are not only contented with sending formal request, but also appear very much comfortable with request from forest department is fulfilled or not. “We have sent the forest department a formal request to cut down worn out trees which we had identified in a recent survey. But we have not received replies from the forest department, that is why we have not initiated process of uprooting these trees,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner Divyanshu Jha.
A retired senior forest official said that the forest department was not prone to keep such urgencies lingered on, as these were matters of immediate action keeping natural calamities and casualties of life in mind. “But you know, departments like RMC and others have unfortunately earned much infame as far as taking public works at urgencies is concerned. Moreover, they wake up when work appears on their head. This is a major problem,” said the official seeking anonymity.
Notably, three passengers died and four seriously injured on Tuesday on Ratu Road area when a tree fell down on a moving auto-rickshaw due to heavy rain. At least half a dozen people were reported died due to falling of trees in various parts of district in last one week, most of them during continued downpour which started on Monday this week. Adding to that, falling of trees on overhead electric lines left major part of city overshadowed with dark after it caused damage of electric poles and power installations including transformers across the city .