Empress Garden would not be destroyed, said a govt official
Pune: The Agri-Horticulture Society of Western India that manages the Empress Botanical Garden on Thursday strongly opposed the govt’s alleged proposal to transfer approximately 2.5 acres for the construction of the Cantonment Court building. Govt officials objected to the claim that the garden occupied about 40 acres. As per the lease renewed in 2019 for 30 years, Empress Garden is spread over approximately 37 acres. He said said they had transferred 40 guntha and then another 20 guntha of this additional land to the ownership of the Bombay high court for the construction of the Cantonment Court building. “But since the development rules and FSI are lower in the cantonment areas, they wanted an additional 40 guntha to make eight courtrooms, judges’ chambers and other necessary infrastructure. We completed the measurement of the land 15 days ago and decided to transfer another 40 guntha available. He said about 37 acres was leased out to Empress Garden, but it was occupying more space than that.
The office bearers said they were in the know of the proposal though they had not received any notice about the same. The govt authorities said there was no need for a notice as the court was not being built on the garden’s land. The facility would come up on the govt land adjacent to it, they said. These departments’ land is being used to construct the court,” said a senior official of the revenue department. The proposal for the same will be sent to the state govt next week,” the senior official said. “Having said that, we will not break their walled compound. We are just transferring govt land for the construction of the Cantonment Court,” he said.
“We have checked the lease documents and measured the land. Next to this land are parcels belonging to different govt bodies, such as irrigation department, public works department and forest department. The garden is not being destroyed nor is their leased land encroached upon.