Take up Haritha Haram as a Yagna says Pocharam

Nizamabad: Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said that the district officials should take up the Haritha Haram programme and implement it on war footing.

They should consider it as a Yagna if the district has to become green and clean. Participating in a saplings plantation drive at the Padmashali High School in the town on Wednesday, he said people belonging to all sections of the society should be involved in the plantation programme.

The Agriculture Minister said to increase the green cover to 35 per cent in the district, 3.35 crore saplings should be planted every year and deforestation should not be allowed.

By growing large number of trees, the district would receive heavy rainfall and pollution levels could be reduced to a great extent, he added.

Minister Pocharam said that teachers in every school should highlight the importance of growing plants to the students so that in future, the students when they grow up would take measures to safeguard the environment from ecological disasters.

Giving the example of Switzerland, the Minister said that the country receives rainfall once every week and the people there do not depend on river water projects but instead, completely depend on rains.

Crops are grown in Switzerland throughout the year, he added The Agriculture Minister said that in many European countries, 50 per cent of the land was covered by dense forests and that was why there were no droughts or famine.

He said that people should take up the plantation drive with great commitment and plant 50 lakh saplings in each division if the population was 5 lakhs.

Pocharam said that as per the wishes of the people of Nizamabad town, seeds of mango, oranges, lemon, guava, and sapota (star fruit) would be distributed to the people and urged them to cultivate them. Nizamabad Mayor Sujatha, local MLA Bigala Ganesh Gupta and MLC PG Goud were present on the occasion.