In a remarkable signing of MOU with # IndianRailways #Haryana to plant trees at Railway Land

In a remarkable signing of MOU with Indian Railways Haryana to plant trees at Railway Land

Sanjay Chaturvedi

New Delhi, May 2 – The key issue of Clean India, Green India is touching the life of common men in almost all the areas of day to day life. With the concern about the rising levels of pollution and reducing green cover has something to do about the greed of the human beings to encroach over the land meant for green cover of the earth. However, the present BJP Government is quiet concerned about the issues and has been instrumental in taking appropriate steps to increase the number of trees wherever possible. However, till now, the Indian Railways were not taking much pains in this direction.
In order to moot the support of Indian railways too to increase the green cover over the different parts of country.

In this direction an important milestone was achieved today when Indian Railways signed an agreement with the state of Haryana to plant saplings on railway land for the success of ‘Green India Mission’ as envisaged by Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi. It is a well known fact that Indian Railways own a large share of land all over the country that lies vacant at most of the places. The land is often found to be misused by the local residents. With the agreement signed today at New Delhi, this land will be used to plant saplings that would certainly be benefiting in the direction of increasing the green cover and hence, reduction in pollution.
To begin with, 1.25 lakh saplings would be planted over an area of 115 hectares along Sonipat-Jind and Rohtak-Rewari railway lines in the initial phase.

The agreement was signed by Haryana Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Dr. (Mrs.) Amarinder Kaur, and Chief Engineer/P&D, Northern Railway, Mr. Pankaj Saxena, in the presence of Union Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister, Mr. Prakash Javadekar, and Haryana Forests Minister, Rao Narbir Singh in New Delhi today.

While speaking on the occasion, Union Railways Minister, Mr. Suresh Prabhu, said that with a view to making the ‘Green India Mission’ a grand success, five crore saplings would be planted on railway land.He said that afforestation would be carried out in the entire country through Joint Forest Management. The participation of Ministries of Railways and Environment and Forest Department of state government would be ensured. He said that plantation along railway track would not only reduce pollution, but would also provide employment opportunities and reduce soil erosion, which would reduce the chances of mishaps. He said that in the first phase, such agreements have been signed with Haryana and Punjab and talks were on with the Maharashtra Government.

Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister, Mr. Prakash Javadekar, said that plantation would also be taken up along National Highways to promote afforestation. He said that the Department had also set a rule that after plantation, the authority to fell trees would also lie with the departments concerned, which would promote re-plantation. He said that the country imports timber worth Rs 40,000 crore. With afforestation, more employment opportunities would be generated and the economic condition of the country would also be strengthened.

Those present on this occasion included State BJP President, Mr. Subhash Barala, Principal Secretary, Forests, Mr. Amit Jha, and officers of Central Government.