50m saplings to be planted during monsoon

The provincial government has set a target of planting 50 million saplings during the monsoon tree plantation campaign that would be formally inaugurated in the third week of July and would continue till December.

Punjab Minister for Forests Sabtain Khan and Punjab Chief Secretary Jawwad Rafique Malik jointly presided over a meeting to review the arrangements for the campaign at the Civil Secretariat on Wednesday.

Addressing the meeting, the provincial minister said that Punjab government is taking steps to increase forests in the region.

He added that under the ‘Khidmat Apki Dahleez Par’ programme, tree planting week was being observed across the province from July 12 to July 18.

“As many as 380,000 saplings will be planted during this week.”

The chief secretary said that suitable arrangements should be in place to look after a sapling after its plantation, directing the forest secretary to devise a system for monitoring the growth of plants with the help of modern technology.

The secretaries of different departments including local government, irrigation, schools education, higher education attended the meeting while the divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners and the director generals of parks and horticulture authorities participated through video link.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2021.