Minister for Forest and Environment Sri Jogu Ramanna held a press conference on ”TelanganaKu Haritha Haram” programme at Secretariat.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao decided to constitute a ‘Green Brigade’ for every 500 plants to ensure 100 percent surveillance of the saplings planted under the ‘Telangana Ku Haritha Haram’ programme.
Minister Sri Jogu Ramanna Speaking to media persons on the eve of the launching of Haritha Haram-III on July 12 by the Chief Minister at Karimnagar, the Minister said the ‘Green Brigades’ will take care of watering, protecting the tree guard, removal of weed and safeguard the saplings’ growth.“The government is giving Rs 5 per sapling per month towards maintenance where more than 100 saplings are planted,” he said, adding that the survival rate of saplings planted in the first two phases was 67 per cent.
Pointing out that the State government had planted 49 crore saplings in two spells so far, he said in the third phase, the government has decided to plant 40 crore saplings with the involvement of all the departments, public representatives and social groups.
“This year, we are mainly targeting forest areas and planting variety of saplings on both sides of the 3,572 km forest trench in the State,” Ramanna said, and appealed to all sections of people to participate in the world’s biggest afforestation programme.
Nizamabad tops in Haritha Haram-II
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The Minister said that among the districts, Nizamabad bagged the first place in planting and protecting saplings in Haritha Haram phase II. Similarly, this year too the government has decided to give awards starting from village to district level for successfully implementing the third phase of the programme.
He said the Chief Minister will launch the Haritha Haram third phase programme in Karimnagar on July 12, when about 25,000 saplings would be planted during the day-long programme.
Waiting for Central funds
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On Central funds for the green cover programme, the Minister said despite repeated requests by the Chief Minister, the Cente had failed to release the funds for the programme. “Union Minister for Transport Nitin Gadkari assured release of about Rs 34 crore under ‘National Green Highway Development Project’ to the State but not a single rupee has been sanctioned so far,” Ramanna rued.
He requested the Union government to release the pending dues of Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,100 crore to the State under NGHDP programme.