Talking about the state’s ‘Harith Haram’ reforestation programme, the Telangana CM recently told a gathering of legislators, that around 85-95 per cent of the targets across the state had already been met since the programme was launched in July 2015.
The Telangana State government plans to set up a Green Fund to ensure that it is at the forefront of the national initiative to restore the country’s lost and denuded forest lands.
Sources quoting Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao say initiatives for reforestation programmes at the national level have not been given the attention and priority they deserve.
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Talking about the state’s ‘Harith Haram’ reforestation programme, the Telangana CM recently told a gathering of legislators, that around 85-95 per cent of the targets across the state had already been met since the programme was launched in July 2015.
The initiative had successfully achieved planned targets in the past seven years, at a total cost of Rs 6,555 crore so far. But this was not enough. Nor was it the time to sit back and take a breather, he asserted.
To carry forward the ‘Harith Haram’ programme on a war footing there was an immediate need to channelise untapped sources for massive doses of extra funds; the kind that would reflect the efforts and participation of every citizen in the state.
The United Nation has recognised Telangana State’s ‘Harith Haram’ programme, launched in July 2015, as the third largest initiative in the world towards global greening and healing or recovery of lost forest lands.
The Green Budget aptly aims to fulfill this objective.
The state’s strategy to raise additional funds for the Green Budget is simple and as follows:
All MLAs, MLCs and MPs have been asked to contribute Rs 500 per month; for officers of the Indian Administrative Services – IAS, IPS, IFS – the amount is Rs 100; and for all gazetted, non-gazetted officers and teachers’ unions, a sum of Rs 25.
The state also proposes to take a contribution of Rs. 1000 on every licence renewal; Rs 50 on every land transaction and Rs 5-100 contributions from students ( Rs 5 for primary school; Rs 15 for high school students; Rs 25 for intermediate students; Rs 50 for undergraduates and Rs. 100 for those taking up post-graduate or professional courses).
Also Read: ‘Seed bombing’ in Telangana to restore green cover
The Chief Minister explains that this collective initiative towards the Green Fund would instill a sense of pride and joy in every citizen of the state.
Every time an employee, an officer or a student sees a sapling being planted somewhere, it will make them proud of their personal involvement in this massive and grand reforestation of the state’s forest cover, the Chief Minister says.
The United Nation has recognised Telangana State’s ‘Harith Haram’ programme, launched in July 2015, as the third largest initiative in the world towards global greening and healing or recovery of lost forest lands.
The other two countries in order of merit are China’s 5000-km-long ‘Great Green Wall’ across the Gobi Desert and Brazil’s reforestation programme to restore the Amazon Rain Forest to its pristine grandeur.
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