Pune Municipal Corporation clueless about the utilisation of tree tax
23 Mar, 2013
Application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has shown that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) does not have information about the manner of utilisation of the tree tax.
The RTI applicant, Vinod Jain, has claimed that 1% tree cess is charged by the PMC in the property tax bill, for conservation of trees and the money is supposed to be used for tree plantation and conservation. He had asked for a map of locations where tree conservation/plantation was taken up and had sought the information in the form of a soft copy. The PMC has informed that they didn't have any idea about the locations
The PMC has collected around Rs 33 crore from tree cess in the last ten years. The garden superintendent Ashok Ghorpade, has said that he would look into the data to check what information was sought and what information was given in response to the RTI application. The matter is in the court.