Bhopal: Most of the collectors of the 22 districts in the riparian zone of Narmada, who, along with other senior officers, attended a meeting here on Wednesday, in connection with the upcoming massive plantation drive on Narmada banks, expressed their inability to meet the targets allocated to them. The meeting was chaired by CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Hoshangabad collector Avinash Lavania said it would be next to impossible for him to meet the target of planting 55 lakh trees. ACS RS Julania told Lavania that if he could not exceed the target by planting 65 lakh trees, he should at least meet the target given to him earlier. The CM sought to know from Lavania why he had not come prepared for the meeting, to which Lavania said he had not imagined that the target would be so high. The CM, however, refused to relent. “You have to take tough action against illegal mining and you have to get trees planted,” he said. Trying to boost the morale of Lavania, chief secretary Basant Pratap Singh said, “You had organised Simhastha, now what is the problem in planting trees?”
The CM increased the target of Indore district from 15 lakh to 25 lakh, forcing collector P Narhari to plead that enough land was not available to plant saplings in such massive numbers. When Narsinghpur collector RR Bhonsale said he couldnot make his presentation due to problem of ‘font’, the CM retorted, “You haven’t come prepared and now you are dishing out an excuse.” He raised the target for Narsinghpur to 53 lakh. The collector, sources said, was palpably upset over it.
The CM enhanced the targets of all districts by 20 per cent saying six crore saplings would be planted only if they began with planning seven crores. He asked Badwani collector Tejasvi Nayak to invite Medha Patkar for planting trees. “When she agitates for the preservation of Narmada, let her plant trees also,” he said.
The CM told Sehore collector Sudama Khade that he would be planting trees in his home district Jait. When Khade said he had set target for planting 19 lakh trees, the CM pulled him up saying, “Why are you shaming youself by setting such a low target? ”When Raisen collector Bhavna Balimbe mentioned eucalyptus during her presentation, the CM told her not to plant eucalyptus in any case.
When most of the collectors referred to paucity of land for plantations, the CM told them that they should begin with the catchment area and if land was insufficient, they should move further. “First move ahead up to 2 kms, then to 5 kms and if you still don’t find good enough land, then get saplings planted at other places,” he said. He said they should not try to do a formality by getting trees planted by government officers and employees. “Make it a people’s movement,” he told the collectors.
