Bengaluru: Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike tree officer Ratnaprabha T.A., who made public that she was being pressurised by officials from the BMRCL to grant permission to cut trees, was relieved off her duties on Monday.
Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike sources said that she was transferred from the post of assistant conservator of forests (ACF), South Bengaluru, as she exposed that BMRCL officials was pressuring her to grant permission to chop trees for Metro Phase-2.
Ms Ratnaprabha is yet to receive the order, but the letter, dated July 22 and signed by Mr Ekesh Babu K., undersecretary, Urban Development Department (Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike), is ready. The copy of the order, accessed by Deccan Chronicle, states that Ms Ratnaprabha has been transferred back to her mother department, as she was not responding to the works of BBMP.
But sources said that the remark is from truth and the top brass wanted her out as she had embarrassed them.
“Her transfer order is no surprise as the top officials of both the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike and BMRCL were embarrassed when she revealed that higher-ups were pressurising her to grant permission to cut trees without holding public consultation on R.V. Road near Silk Board stretch,” the source claimed.
“Look at the speed with which the transfer order has come. It has passed through the offices Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Special Commissioner, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner and Urban Development Department in a jiffy, the source said.
