MC plants 26,000 saplings but at wrong places

Apart from this, saplings have also been planted along the Buddha Nallah road which are also crying for proper care. As many as Rs 1200 has been spent on one tree guard and after plantation it seems that plants have never been watered.

On the Ferozepur Road, saplings costing Rs 10 were planted along the busy and polluted road and most of them have died by now. In the MC general house meeting, councillors had raised hue and cry about lack of plantation in most of the areas, but MC Commissioner A K Sinha said, “They were sent the list of plantation drive and the locations along with. And most of the plants are in perfect order. If their are any anomalies, we can get them checked.” 

Surinder Kumar, landscaping officer, said, “If plants have damaged at a few sites, we will verify this. But on a few of the roadsides, no kaccha space was available and hence digging was done. Shrubs have been planted and they will work well.” However, Newsline team saw plants all across the Pakhowal Road on roadsides in a bad shape. Not only this even last year mass plantation drive was done in the inner colonies of Pakhowal Road and most of them have died by now and hence this year few new plants have been planted again. SS Chana, president of park management federation, said, “Maintenance of plants is more important rather than just sowing and forgetting after that. “ Interestingly in monsoons new plants were planted inside the mini-secretariat and even near courts complex as well, but few fox tail palms have died which are very costly and one plant costs not less than Rs 1200.

The MC had given contract of plantation of 10,000 plants along with tree guards and two years maintenance to two private companies with a total cost of Rs 1.7 crore. However this plan did not work out and hence the contracts of the companies were cancelled. The corporation had an aim to plant more than a lakh sapling this monsoon, but ended up with a few thousands only and that too in wrong places.