Governor ESL Narsimhan suggests No tree, no house permission

Governor ESL Narasimhan has suggested that permissions to build houses under the GHMC limits should be given only after the owner of the house completes digging a soak pit and planting not less than 10 saplings.
The Governor, who was the chief guest for the mass plantation programme held at Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) on Monday, himself planted saplings on the company’s premises. Addressing the gathering, he also suggested integrating Haritha Haram programme with horticulture and planting of medicinal plants along with fruit-yielding ones.
He assured that unlike a 52 per cent survival rate achieved during the last year’s campaign, this year steps would be taken to protect the plants and that pictures of the plants



would be taken after 6 months and reviewed so that 100 per cent survival rate could be achieved. He also declared that awards would be presented to organisations which planted and took care of maximum number of saplings.
Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao stressed on the need to increase the forest cover from 7 per cent in Medak district to 33 per cent, to avoid drought conditions, which were not seen in Adilabad and Khammam districts because of dense forest cover there.
Municipal Administration and IT Minister K Taraka Rama Rao hoped 46 crore saplings would be planted in the State every year for the next five years, to achieve the target of 230 crore plantations, increasing the State’s forest cover from 24 per cent to 33 per cent.