‘Plant 10 saplings instead of 10K, but ensure their survival’

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 2

Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu inaugurated a plantation drive in collaboration with two private firms to keep the city green and pollution free. The MC would plant 500 saplings with tree guards. The move has been inaugurated at Majitha Road by planting trees on the central verge and installing tree guards for their care of plants.

Earlier on this occasion, Sukh Amrit Singh from Youth for Global Peace and Transformation and Gurinder Bhatti from ESS Global welcomed the Mayor for inaugurating the plantation drive

Mayor Karamjit Singh said they started the plantation drive in which about 500 saplings would be planted. All the plants would be protected by the tree guards. He said every year various organisations carried out plantation programmes and thousands of saplings were planted but only a few plants survived and most of them got damaged. He appealed to all the organisations to plant only 10 saplings instead of 10,000, but to take care of them.

“Tree guards must be installed so that the saplings can grow and the purpose for which they have been planted can be achieved. It has been observed that the rate of success of the saplings planted in tree guards is 98 per cent and if such plantation drives are carried out for one or two years, there will be no need to plant trees for the next 20 years and the city’s environment will improve,” said Rintu.

He appealed to the residents of the city to plant at least one tree and ensure its survival. “As the population of the city is around 13-14 lakhs, the same number of plants can be planted in a year. Though it is the duty of the government to make efforts to protect the environment, it is also the responsibility of the citizens to plant at least one tree. It will be a great contribution to our city and country,” he added.

Horticulture Engineer Sandeep Singh, Sanitary Inspector Vijay Sharma and a large number of locals were present on the occasion.

Mayor inaugurates dev projects in city

Mayor Karamjit Singh inaugurated the work of cemented lanes and interlocking tiles at ward number 20 in Amritsar East Assembly constituency here today. The MC will spent Rs 1.50 crore on cemented lanes at Din Dayal Colony in Verka and install interlocking tiles at a cost of Rs 90 lakh at Sant Nagar Dhup Sari. The Mayor said the funds for the projects had been provided by the government of Punjab for the development of East constituency under the Punjab Environment Improvement Programme. He stated other projects that will transform the city were also in the pipeline.