Peshawar: A high-level meeting regarding Monsoon Plantation Drive for the year 2021 was held in Peshawar on Wednesday.

The meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mehmood Khan discussed various matters for devising a strategy to make this plantation drive a real success story and took a number of decisions to this effect.

It was decided to constitute a steering committee to be headed by KP Chief Secretary which would determine responsibilities of different departments and prepare a plan with timelines for implementing the plantation drive.

The meeting further decided to constitute district committees headed by Deputy Commissioners at district level for effective implementation of the plan prepared by the aforesaid steering committee. Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz, administrative secretaries of relevant departments, divisional commissioners and other relevant high ups attended the meeting.

The forum was given a detail briefing about the upcoming monsoon plantation drive and was told that during the campaign a total of 41.194 million saplings would be planted across the province, and for this purpose the entire province including the newly merged districts has been divided into three different regions.

It was told that over 25 million saplings would be planted in Region-I, over 10 million saplings in Region-II and 4.811 million saplings in Region-III.

Besides rural and hilly areas of the province, special focus would also be given to plantation in urban areas, and added that forest department would set the plantation target as well as specify the species of saplings for each district.

Concerned deputy commissioner would ensure effective utilization of human resource, machinery and financial resources to carry out the plantation drive.

Talking on the occasion, the chief minister said that all the concerned departments and stakeholders would have to perform extraordinarily in order to make the plantation drive a historic one. He directed the authorities concerned to ensure the maximum engagement of volunteers and community in that plantation drive.

He further directed them to focus on highways, canals, roads and river-sides plantation. Stressing the need for effective monitoring system for the saplings planted during the campaign and their protection in order to minimize mortality of the plants.

The chief minister said that concerned Tehsil Municipal Officer would be responsible for the protection of saplings planted during the monsoon drive and negligence on their part would not be tolerated in that regard. He also directed that all the departments/stakeholders would be bound to provide certificates along with GPs coordinates of the saplings planted by them.