Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao on Wednesday asked officials to be prepared to plant 320 crore saplings – 160 crore under social forestry and 160 crore under forest areas – as part of vigorously implementing the Telanganaku Harita Haram program over a period of four years. Speaking to officials at Secretariat, Rao asked the Finance Department to ensure adequate funds for implementing the programme.

To review the Telanganaku Harita Haram at full level and to formulate an action plan, he asked the officials to convene a meeting of district collectors and forest department personnel at the MCR HRD Institute on May 11. He directed them to grow saplings in nurseries to meet this year’s demand and also subsequent years. Under the intensified program, the objective should be to plant 160 crore saplings under the social forestry program and another 160 crore in forest areas and nursing them carefully, he clarified.

Rao wanted the Forest Department and Horticulture Department to jointly manage the plant nurseries and directed them to give priority to plant fruit-bearing trees in forests. To overcome the shortage of teak seedlings, he asked them to import them either from Burma or Africa countries. People should be made to take part in the most prestigious tree plantation program, he said and called upon all sections of society to render shramdaan to plant saplings as part of the plantation drive. He asked authorities to give wide publicity to the program and sensitize people about the program.

Chief Secretary Rajeev Sarma, CMO Principal Secretary Narsing Rao, Principal Secretary Finance Pradeep Chandra, Finance Secretary Ramakrishna Rao, Officer on Special Duty for Harita Haram Priyanka Varghese, Secretary to Chief Minister Bhoopal Reddy and others were present at the meeting. Meanwhile, information and public relations commissioner B P Acharya has decided to give publicity to the Telanganaku Harita Haram so that people of the state are involved in the program.