Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has asked the District Collectors, SPs, DFOs and housing officials to conduct the massive plantation drive being taken up as Harita Haaram programme as a movement rather than just another government scheme.
In a review meeting held on the campaign aimed at increasing the green cover to 33 per cent from the present 24 per cent of the State’s geography, he complimented the work done by the officials with dedication to implement the government scheme properly. “It’s the good work of the officers that has been bringing good name to the State Government across the country,” he said.
Ministers Jogu Ramanna, A. Indrakaran Reddy, MP K. Keshava Rao, Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma, DGP Anurag Sharma, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest S.B.L. Mishra and Principal Secretaries of various departments participated in the meeting.
Explaining the arrangements made for the massive drive to be taken up from next month, Mr. Mishra said about 40 crore seedlings/saplings including fruit-bearing, shade-giving, medicinal, decorative, forest and other varieties were ready in 4,213 nurseries for plantation.
Massive drive
Making suggestions on the massive plantation drive, the Chief Minister directed the officials to take measures including providing tree-guards to protect plants till they reached a ‘safe stage’ by involving government and private organisations, instead of just planting and forgetting. He asked the officials to set up animal-traps at the entrances of major buildings to prevent entry of cattle which eat away/damage plants and use fire-tenders to water the plants.
Further, the Chief Minister asked the officials to launch a massive awareness drive on the programme through posters, pamphlets, audiovisual media and others. The officials were told to give preference to ‘shramadaanam’ for plantation drive by involving students and other government employees including the police besides the elected representatives from village level. Stating that he would visit districts by road instead of by air as part of the programme, he said the aim should be to transform the degraded forests into dense ones. He suggested formation of village-level green protection committees with school headmasters, sarpanches, VROs, Tahasildars, MPTC/ZPTC members for protecting plants.
