Amritsar civic body to implement action plan to enhance green cover

Amritsar, June 8

Following directions of the Department of Local Governments, a meeting was held by Amritsar Municipal Corporation to discuss ‘Green Action Plan’ to enhance green cover in the city. In the meeting, Urban Planner Mani Sharma gave a presentation on the plan and discussions were held on strategies to increase the green cover, improving air quality of the city.

On the occasion, MC Commissioner Harpreet Singh said the government has prepared an urban greening programme based on urban greening and tree plantation strategy guidelines (2023) published by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affaiars (MoHUA).

Based on the guidelines issued by Department of Local Government, the targets set for each Urban Local Body for corporation towns include planting a minimum 35,000 saplings, and creating green walls and dense urban forest area. To achieve this target, the Green Action Plan has been prepared to help setting milestones, implementing strategies and monitoring progress. An app, Hara Punjab, has been created by the Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company for monitoring progress in this regard.

Harpreet Singh said, “The strategy includes geo-tagging tools to conduct surveys and measure success in terms of green cover growth. This application will be further linked to a dashboard that will provide information on plantation programme progress, quality check status and distribution of trees in different wards”.

Singh directed officials of the various departments to appoint one nodal officer per department to oversee plantation, subsequent management and provide daily feedback. He said meetings will be held after two months and the status of geo-tagging will be reviewed by him. He emphasised more focus will be given on maintenance of plants to ensure their long term growth. He added interested institutions willing to be a part of this iniative should contact the civic body.

The meeting was attended by Superintending Engineer (Horticulture) Sandeep Singh; Mani Sharma, urban planner; Sukhdeep Singh, SDO; Harmanpreet Singh, JE (Irrigation Department); Gurbanta Singh, District Guidance Counsellor (Secondary) and Indu Bala, Deputy DEO (Primary).

The plan entails

• Planting and maintaining a minimum 35,000 saplings, and creating green walls and dense urban forest areas
• An app, Hara Punjab, has been created by the Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company for monitoring progress in this regard
• Use of geo-tagging tools to conduct surveys and measure success in terms of green cover growth