Haritha Haram stinks of big scam at Telangana: Congress

Hyderabad: Launching a scathing attack on the claims of the State government pertaining to 'Haritha Haram' plantations across the State, TPCC treasurer Gudur Narayan Reddy on Monday sought to know if Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was ready to carry out the tree census in Telangana.

Narayana Reddy, in a media statement on Monday, described the scheme as not 'Haritha Haram' but 'Haritha Haraam' and a major scam in which hundreds of crores of public money is being wasted. He said that if the government fails to prove its claim, it should submit an apology to the people. He said that if the government is claiming to have planted 159 crore trees across the State during the past five years as part of Haritha Haram programme, it should ratify this by conducting the tree census.

The Congress leader said that it was revealed in an RTI query that Rs 3,630 crore was spent in the name of planting saplings from 2015 to 2020. He termed this entire exercise a scam and questioned the Rs 6.91 crore expenses incurred for purchasing Green Khandwas for the Haritha Haram alone.

Narayana Reddy pointed out that the population of Telangana is nearly 3.52 crore as per 2011 census and 159 crore plants equal to 45 trees per person in the State.

"If this is true, the State government should justify its claim by conducting the tree census in at least 5 or 10 percent of the 590 mandals or 12,771 Gram Panchayats of the State which will come to nearly 1,275 villages or 59 mandals of the State for census," he said.