“Plant for Punjab Day” in 1st Week of Agusut

Lahore (HRNW) Under the Prime Minister’s Billion Tree Tsunami Program, the Punjab government has decided to observe the “Plant for Punjab Day” in the first week of August. On this occasion ceremonies would be organized at divisional, district and union council level for mass tree plantation across the province and more than one million saplings would be planted in a single day.

The 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 Sabtin 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 organizations 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 directed the Forest Department to work day and night for the success of the Prime Minister’s Billion Tree Tsunami Programme. 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 said that instructions have been issued to continue the tree planting drive vigorously and targets have been assigned to all departments and divisions. 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 saplings would be planted in government forests, 11 million in the Defense Department, 14 million in other government departments and 25 million saplings would be distributed among farmers. As many as 170 million saplings have been planted during the year, he maintained.