Woodcutters looming large: Another tree-cutting scam surfaces as school plans to chop down all

The purpose of the heartless chop is none other than making quick money, say officials.

KARACHI: Yet another tree-cutting scam surfaced as Jamia Millia Model School’s plans of chopping down the trees that are planted inside its premises came to The Express Tribune’s notice on Saturday.

The purpose of the heartless chop of the Indian Lilac (Neem) trees is none other than liquefying quick cash. “These Neem trees are being butchered only to get cheap benefit by selling out their wood,” said a source inside the Malir District Municipal Corporation (DMC) requesting anonymity.

The official added that the school is located behind the Malir Courts, where an extensive chop-down took place a few months ago for wood sale.

The officials of the education department bent upon the cutting of trees inside the school enjoy the support of corrupt officials of the DMC. This enables them to continue with their chopping all over the Malir district and no one can dare to stand up against them, said the DMC official. “Earlier, they cut down the trees inside the Jamia Millia College and sold out the wood,” he alleged.

Jamia Millia is state-owned college and school and its administration once planned to demolish the old building structure to sell the building debris. However, the plan had to be abandoned after the hue and cry raised by members of the civil society, said the official.

The other side

The principal of the Jamia Millia Model School had a completely different version to share with The Express Tribune. Humaira Khan denied the accusations that the school’s administration has planned to chop down the trees planted inside its premises.

“We have planned to trim these trees as most of the branches of these four trees are falling down on the street and could be a cause of any accident,” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2014.