FPJ investigations revealed that a major part of the saplings and trees have found its way to the farm house owned by a former municipal commissioner The Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) lived to its reputation of being one of the most corrupt civic bodies in the state after yet another major scam stumbled out of its closets. This one being from its Tree Authority (TA). As the world was engaged in celebrating "Environment Day" on Thursday, activists of the local BJP unit launched an agitation against tree officials outside the main administrative building of the corporation were busy shouting slogans in protest of the alleged "Tree Scam" that recently surfaced in the corporation. The Tree Authority (TA) in the MBMC has come under the scanner for massive financial irregularities in the tree and sapling plantation project undertaken up by the authorities in the year 2006. The matter came to light after BJP Corporator Om Prakash Garodia sought details of the project from the MBMC under the Right to Information Act (RTI). It should be noted that the Tree Authority, as a part of its much hyped "Green Revolution" campaign in March 2006 had mooted a proposal (resolution number 23) to plant ornamental and coconut trees in the twin township. Prominent land marks and roads across the 79 square kilometre of Mira-Bhayandar were earmarked for the plantation drive. The MBMC made a provision of Rs 15 lakhs for the entire project that was to be handed over to private contractors. Subsequently the tree authority invited tenders for the execution of the project. Two companies namely Disha Enterprises and Sagar Enterprises were awarded the contract for the ornamental tree plantation and coconut tree plantation work respectively. The T A officials claimed that a payment of Rs 9,99,890 was made to Disha Enterprises for plantation of 34,430 ornamental tress including 3000 Krotan trees, 1,500 Arelia trees, 3000 Acrylifa, 2,500 Boganvel tress, 3000 Lentina tress. The Sagar Enterprises was paid Rs 3,50,000 for planting 2,275 (six to eight leaves) coconut trees. "During our investigation, we found that the approved number of plants and trees seemed to exist only on the papers of the Tree Authority, while the actual number of existing trees were quite less," alleged Garodia. He then decided to gather details of the project with the help of the RTI Act. "The contractors were handed the entire payment without the mandatory verification about actual status of the trees planted," Garodia said. Although TA officials have claimed that more than 90 percent of the trees still survive, investigations carried out by The FPJ revealed that a major part of the saplings and trees have found its way to the farm house owned by a former municipal commissioner. Deputy Municipal Commissioner Sambjai Panpette has assured to look into the matter while municipal commissioner Rajeev Jadhav in his clarification before Tree Committee members claimed ignorance about the project as it was executed well before his appointment as commissioner of the corporation. Meanwhile BJP Corporator and Tree Authority member Sneha Pandey has asked for a probe into the matter and also demanded filing criminal cases against the guilty officials and contractors.