PTI’s Billion Tree Project lauded widely: Basharat

LAHORE:Punjab Law and Cooperatives Minister Raja Basharat has said that PTI’s Billion Tree Project is being appreciated all over the world while the Punjab government was taking full part in the monsoon tree plantation campaign as per the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

He expressed these views on Monday while inaugurating the tree plantation campaign in Cooperative Housing Societies across the province by planting saplings in the Central Park of Model Town. Basharat said that planting as many trees as possible in the country was an important part of the PTI's manifesto as it would help us to combat climate change comfortably.

He directed that all the housing societies of Punjab Cooperatives should participate in the drive and make the campaign launched by Chief Minister Usman Buzdar a success. Earlier, a ceremony was held at Central Park Model Town in which Secretary Cooperatives Department Ahmed Raza Sarwar, Joint Registrar Cooperative Housing Taseer Ahmed, Joint Registrar Field M Iqbal and Deputy Registrar Cooperatives Lahore Ghulam Khaliq besides ex-President Model Town Society Mian Saif-ur-Rehman, current President Dawood Bari, Vice-President Haseeb-ur-Rehman, Tariq Sana Bajwa, Faiz-ur-Rehman, Mohsin Tariq, Rehan Ishtiaq, Mian Waheed, Amir Alvi, Tariq Farooq, Umar Farooq, Mansoor Akhtar, Mian Hamad Hassan, Asad Abrar Rana, Mian Zubair Sarwar, Wasif Naeem, Usman Rafiq, Imran Yaseen and Noman Khalid also attended.

Meanwhile, under the Prime Minister's Billion Tree Programme, the Punjab government has decided to observe the “Plant for Punjab Day'' in the first week of August. On this occasion ceremonies would be organised at divisional, district and union council level for mass tree plantation across the province and more than one million seedlings would be planted in a single day. This decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam and Provincial Minister for Forests Sabtain Khan at the Civil Secretariat here on Monday.

The Chief Secretary Punjab, administrative secretaries of different departments including forests, agriculture, higher education, schools education, health and cooperatives, director-general of public relations Punjab and officers concerned attended the meeting while all the divisional commissioners participated through video link.

Addressing the meeting, Malik Amin Aslam said that for the first time in the country such a large scale tree plantation is taking place. He said that Plant for Pakistan Day would be observed like a festival in all the provinces and civil society, welfare organisations and Tiger Force would also be involved in this activity.

Provincial Minister Sabtain Khan said that planting trees is very important for the protection of the environment. He mentioned that as many as 380,000 saplings were planted during the plantation week under the “Khidmat Apki Dehliz Per” Programme.

The Chief Secretary Punjab said that tree planting is a battle for the protection of the planet and the survival of future generations. He directed that a system of satellite monitoring of saplings planted during tree planting be devised. The Forest Secretary briefed the meeting that a target has been set to plant 12 million saplings in the province during the year 2021-22. He said that 70 million seedlings would be planted in govt forests, 11 million in the Defence Department, 14 million in other govt departments and 25 million saplings would be distributed among farmers. As many as 170 million saplings have been planted during the year, he maintained.