Tree Plantation, A Colossal Waste Of Money?

[Anta Assamey]

The much-publicised programme of “Koti Vriksharchana” (worshipping of one crore trees) taken up by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi on the occasion of the 67th birthday of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was a sheer waste of public money.

This was the opinion expressed by actor-turned-former MP and present Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Vijayashanti.

She said orders have been instructed to the village authorities to plant at least 1,000 saplings in their respective villages.

“However, the village officials are lamenting that the government had paid the bills for the saplings they had planted in the past. They are asking who should pay the cost of the sapling, tree guards and labour charges. But they were given targets only to appease the TRS leadership,” Vijayashanti said.

The village officials pointed out that all the saplings would wilt during summer, if they are not watered regularly.

“In the past, too, crores of rupees were spent on planting saplings, but not enough care was taken to safeguard them. As a result, the money had gone waste,” she pointed out.

Vijayashanti also alleged that the horticulture department had spent several crores of rupees on raising nurseries in the farm of the chief minister at Erravelli village.

“While several employees of RTC and GHMC were suffering due to non-payment of salaries, the government was wasting crores of rupees in the name of tree plantation,” she criticised.