Minister calls for planting 1.60-cr saplings in 374 villages

Vikarabad:  Transport Minister P Mahender Reddy said that it was the responsibility of each and every villager to plant 1.60-crore saplings in about 374 villages of the district and to nurse them carefully. 

Speaking after inaugurating a two-day training camp on starting nurseries in villages and their operation held at Collectorate from Monday, he said that at least 40,000 saplings should be planted in each village from second week of July. Elected people’s representatives, officials and villagers should treat it as their social responsibility to plant the saplings and nurse them carefully, he added. To achieve green Telangana, plant protection committees should be formed in villages to sensitise people on planting saplings and safeguarding the saplings planted, he opined. 

Quoting the new Panchayat Raj Act, he said that each village is supposed to set up a nursery and plant 40,000 saplings and nurse them with care. District Collector Omar Jaleel said that 1.30-crore saplings out of the targeted 1.60-crore saplings are kept ready for planting. The required 30-lakh saplings would be procured bys pending from the mineral funds, he said. Saplings would be planted along the Mission Bhagiradha Pipeline, he said asking officials to distribute six saplings to each household and ensure that they are planted. In fact, 90 lakh teak saplings are kept ready in nurseries. 

Last year, 72 lakh saplings out of the targeted 1.20 crore are  planted with a survival rate of 90 per cent. Each and every plant was geo tagged and uploaded into relevant website. MLA Sanjeeva Rao asked officials to plant saplings and safeguard them with the installation of the tree guards. The government has been spending crores under Haritaharam, he said and asked officials to show no dereliction to duty. He suggested planting saplings in place of those withered away. 

District Superintendent of Police T Annapurna said that last year 2.80 lakh saplings were planted, geo tagged and uploaded into the website. This year the plan is to plant 3 lakh saplings with the help of seed balls in open places. Haritaharam officer on special duty Venkata Narsaiah, district joint collector Aruna Kumari, district rural development officer Johnson, district panchayat officer Majeed, district forest officer Venu Madhav and others were present.