It appears the people responsible for beautification of the city need a crash course in gardening.
In the past few days, landscaping staff from the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) Environment Wing have employed a cut-rate solution to get rid of dry grass on various green belts — burning them.
Throughout the week, CDA staff has been setting green belts alight and burning down expensive trees in different areas of the city.
The green belts of 7th and 9th avenues, the one across G-8 Markaz, and green belts along Kashmir Highway are among the areas where the ‘solution’ has been employed.
“This is disappointing…there are no checks and balances on this illegal practice by their own gardeners,” said Muhammad Ghaffar, a resident of the G-8 Markaz.
CDA Chairman Engineer Farkhand Iqbal had recently directed the Environment Wing to increase the tree plantation plans and to make Islamabad more visually pleasing, however this illegal practice seems more akin to amputating a hand to treat a broken finger.
“I don’t understand why, when millions of rupees were spent on the environment by the authority, that this practice continues in different areas of the city…. It is disappointing to say the least,” said a CDA official requesting anonymity. The CDA budgeted Rs800 million for the environment this year, he added.
In September 2011, the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) had decided to prepare an environmental prolife of Islamabad. Pak-EPA Director General Asif Shuja Khan had said that developing the profile was the first step towards improving the city’s environment.
Khan said that he will take up the issue of CDA staff setting greenbelts alight with the CDA chairman, when they meet in the coming week. “This is a serious issue and if CDA is found guilty, strict action will be taken against it,” he assured.
CDA Spokesperson Ramzan Sajid denied that CDA staff was setting fires to the greenbelts and claimed “some people were smoking while sitting in green belts, due to which the fires erupted. Our staff is supposed to look after the greenbelts, not destroy them.’’
However, Riaz, a resident of F-7/4, claimed otherwise, saying “a man in a yellow CDA jacket was around the area and minutes later, a whole patch was on fire. Some things are just not coincidental.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 19th, 2012.
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