Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday appealed the MLAs and the MLCs to take up Haritha Haram drive in their respective constituencies as part of the state government’s drive to increase green cover in the state.
Speaking in the Assembly on the Haritha Haram programme, the CM said that the Telangana’s vast forest areas got reduced due to wrong policies by the previous governments and added that the immediate steps should be taken to maintain proper balance of green cover. He said that the TRS government took up Telangana ku Haritha Haram to increase the forest cover in Telangana from 24 to 33%. He said that as many as 230 crore saplings would be planted in three years to increase the green cover in the state.
The Chief Minister said that the state government would increase forest department staff accordingly to curb smuggling of teak and other forest wealth. He said that the government would raise 15 crore teak sapling through nurseries. He said that Haritha Committees would be constituted in villages to look after the protection of saplings planted. He said that the government has announced an award of Rs 10 crore for Peddapally constituency for successfully implementing the green drive.