Kejriwal, DDA lock horns over tree plantation drive

Directing agencies to monitor all newly planted saplings every four months, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday urged Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to ask the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to participate in the Aam Aadmi Party government’s mega plantation drive beginning September 1.

The chief minister wrote to Baijal, complaining that the DDA did not participate it the government’s plantation drive — an allegation denied by the land-owning agency. DDA said it was participating in the campaign and also providing land to Delhi government for its plantation activities.

Kejriwal on Tuesday reviewed the Delhi government’s preparation to meet its target of planting 32.27 lakh saplings and directed agencies to ensure the health of all the plants were monitored through a Google earth-based application and DGPS machines (GPS based machines).

“The FSI (Forest Survey of India) and the FRI (Forest Research Institute) would give all support to the government in post-plantation care. The environment department will buy the DGPS machines and give it to the greening agencies for post-plantation monitoring,” a statement from the CM’s office said.

In his letter to Baijal, Kejriwal said the DDA did not participate in the first review meeting on August 18 to plan the campaign.

“When I called you and informed you, you were kind enough to say you would ensure participation of the DDA vice-chairman in the next meeting. It pains me to inform that today a junior-level officer from DDA came to the meeting and informed that DDA has already planted three lakh trees and will not participate in this tree plantation. When the DDA official was informed that DDA had a target of planting 10 lakh trees during this year, the official still refused to participate,” Kejriwal wrote in his letter to the L-G.

The DDA said it was already participating in the drive and would send officials for the event. “We have always gone by the target of 10 lakh for this year out of which 3.6 lakh saplings had already been planted till August 19,” said VC Uday Pratap Singh.

First Published: Aug 22, 2018 01:57 IST