Green drive gets fund boost

Hyderabad: Finance Minister Eatala Rajender has proposed Rs 1,166 crore to the final phase of the State government’s flagship programme of Telanganaku Haritha Haram (THH). Speaking while presenting his final budget during the current tenure of the government here on Thursday, Rajender said the allocation had been made to plant 40 crore saplings during FY 2018-19. For this, about 4,000 nurseries had been set up to develop saplings.

The Finance Minister has made an increased allocation to the tune of Rs 936 crore from his earlier allocation of Rs 230 crore made during the FY 20117-18. It may be recalled here that THH, the flagship scheme was launched during the first full financial year State budget of 2015-16 FY. It was meant to enrich the biodiversity of the State through a massive plantation of 230 crore trees over a period of three to four years, which is in its final phase of implementation during the FY 2018-19.

The scheme has been planned to implement through a multi-pronged approach consisting of rejuvenating degraded forests, ensuring better protection to the existing forests, intensive soil and moisture conservation measures and social forestry. Further, it was also hoped that the gram panchayats and people’s representatives in the State would ensure planting of at least 40 lakh saplings in each Assembly constituency.  

Initially, to kick-start the scheme, 3,600 nurseries were identified for raising adequate nursery stock during the ‘Mana Vooru Mana Pranalika’ programme, for which, a corpus fund of Rs 300 crore had been allocated during the FY 2015-16. The government wanted to make the scheme a success by tapping funds from the Central schemes like CAMPA, MGNREGA, besides the State funds. 

Rajender said so far 81 crore saplings had been planted in the State since the programme had been launched. To complete the target by the end of the ensuing FY and to meet the final phase of its implementation, the Finance Minister has proposed an increased allocation of Rs 936 crore during the ensuing fiscal year.