Urban plantation ordered

KP CM ordered strict actions against the use of plastic bags to make the province polythene free

PESHAWAR:

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has ordered that special attention should paid to plantation in urban areas during the ongoing Monsoon Plantation Campaign and said that saplings with the capacity to grow into big trees be selected for plantation in urban areas.

He further directed them to take strict actions against the use of plastic bags so as to make province polythene free.

He issued these directives while chairing a meeting regarding Urban Plantation Drive held here the other day. Principal Secretary to CM Amjad Ali Khan and high ups of concerned departments attended the meeting while divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners of the concerned districts joined the meeting through video link.

The meeting discussed threadbare the proposed strategy for plantation under the Urban Forestation Drive and took a number of important decisions.

The chief minister on this occassion, directed the administrative secretaries, divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners to execute the strategy chalked out for urban forestation drive in letter and spirit.

He also directed planting the saplings on road sides, banks of canals, government schools, offices, hospitals and on all other available space. He further directed them to engage citizens in plantation drive to make it a real success.

Mahmood Khan said that those plants be selected for plantation which are suitable to the environment of concerned areas so as to achieve the desired results.

The chair directed the divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners to take indiscriminate actions against the use of plastic bags and said that the provincial government had made proper legislation for the purpose which needs to be implemented in true sense.

Mahmood Khan said that urban plantation and ban on plastic bags both are of vital importance and inaction in this regard will not be tolerated at any cost adding that he himself would monitor the progress on monthly basis.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2022.