Explained | The Aarey conundrum

July 10, 2022 01:57 pm | Updated July 12, 2022 01:39 pm IST The story so far: The climax of an intense political drama in Maharashtra, leading to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, saw rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde taking oath as the Chief Minister with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy. The controversy Since the project involved felling of trees for car shed construction, the State government’s proposal got a massive push back from environmentalists and citizens, intensifying the ‘Save Aarey’ movement. Meanwhile, residents of the Aarey Milk Colony also moved the Bombay High Court, alleging that their land had been illegally acquired for the car shed. Activists have been calling for peaceful protests, saying that development and urbanisation can’t be at the cost of the environment Former CM Uddhav Thackeray, a professional wildlife photographer, has made a fervent appeal to the successive Government not to build the car shed in the Aarey Milk Colony. “Metro service is the right of a Mumbai citizen,” Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said and added that 25 per cent of the work on the Metro-3 car shed project is already completed.