Dense plantation to replace ornamental plants

LAHORE: To curb pollution and defeat smog menace in Lahore there is a need to grow dense tree plantation on massive level instead of ornamental plants.

This was stated by Lahore Division Commissioner Dr Mujtaba Piracha while chairing a meeting here Monday. He said that the administration would welcome the interest and cooperation from the side of civil society and environment experts. He said it had also been decided to grow local trees instead of exotic plants as per policy.

The commissioner said that immediately PHA could pass on 13 parks to civil society for forestation and would also work jointly. He said the government departments were also working for tree plantation under the Clean and Green Punjab campaign and would put their full swing cooperation to the civil society. He said that different empty areas of Lahore had been identified by the department for tree plantation and those areas could also be provided to the civil society. He said it had been devised to make symmetry in tree plantation in different areas of Lahore and all stakeholders working for that purpose must also be gathered on one page.

He said that different areas could be handed over to stakeholders for five years in collaboration with departments. He said that on Bullay Shah Interchange of Lahore Ring Road Authority (LRRA), Bab-e-Pakistan, Saggian, Niazi Interchange, empty place of railways, both sides of canal, massive tree plantation was recommended and those places were available for stakeholders to begin their work. Lahore Division Commissioner Dr Mujtaba Piracha on Monday chaired a meeting regarding forestation and beautification of Lahore. SP Security Shehzad Faisal, PHA DG, Member NHA, ADC Finance Lahore, Additional Commissioner Coordination, LRRA Directors, environment experts and members of civil society participated in the meeting.