Civic bodies to plant 10 lakh saplings
In a massive plantation drive on August 28, all the three municipal corporations in the national capital have decided to plant 10 lakh saplings in their respective areas in a day.
In a massive plantation drive on August 28, all the three municipal corporations in the national capital have decided to plant 10 lakh saplings in their respective areas in a day. About half-a-dozen Union ministers are likely to join the plantation drive. Sources said that Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and HRD minister Prakash Javadekar are likely to participate in the plantation drive.
A well-place source in the civic body said that invitations has been sent to Mr Jaitley, Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, Mr Javadekar, environment minister Anil Madhav Dave, science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan, sports minister Vijay Goel and a few others.
“Apart from senior ministers, all the seven Lok Sabha members from the national capital, councillors, three BJP MLAs in the Delhi Assembly, along with party candidates in the last Assembly polls, will participate in the plantation drive,” said a senior BJP leader. To successfully execute one of the biggest plantation drive — 10 lakh saplings in a single days — all the three civic bodies —- South, North and East De-lhi Municipal Corporati-on — have approached Resident Welfare Associa-tion, NGOs, around 1,500 municipal schools, Delhi government-run schools and private schools.
To arrange the required number of saplings, the municipal corporations have already called bid to buy saplings. “A large number of sapling will be arranged by nurseries managed by the three corporations and to meet the shortfall, tender has been called. Sapling will also be arranged from Uttar Pradesh,” said a senior BJP councillor. For the whole exercise, apart from manpower and sapling from own nurseries, the civic bodies is spending around Rs 60 lakh.
“During the day-long plantation drive, saplings and shrubs would be planted in premises of civic bodies and other government institutions like hospitals, schools, dispensaries, parks and other places,” said Vijay Prakash Pandey, the leader of the House in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation.