Hyderabad, Mar 22:Telangana Forests and Environment Minister A Indrakarana Reddy on Monday told the Assembly that more than 217 crore seedlings were planted in the state.

Replying to questions raised by the members in the house during question hour, the Minister said that to improve greenery in the state from 23 per cent to 33 per cent, the government has decided seedlings of 230 crore plants.

So far 179.085 crore seedlings have been planted and 38.321 crores seedlings have been rejuvenated under Telanganaku Haritha Haram Programme. Thus the total achievement so far was 217.406 crore seedlings, he added.

Mr Reddy said that the main focus is given to the protection and survival of the plants planted. In order to ensure the same, both Panchayat Raj Act and Municipal Act in the state have been suitably amended monitoring 85 per cent survival of the plants.

He said instructions have been issued to earmark 10 per cent of the annual budget of Gram Panchayat and Municipalities as “Green Budget” for taking up plantation programme.

The Minister said, large scale rejuvenation of degraded natural forest was being taken up under CAMPA funds by the Forest Department. Village nurseries have been raised in all Gram Panchayats and Urban bodies to supply the planting material.

Geo tagging of plants planted was being done by all the concerned departments to ensure proper monitoring, he said.

The Minister said, every Friday is being observed as watering day in all the districts. Provisions have been made for watch and ward and watering of plants and casualty replacement. Each Gram Panchayat has been provided a tractor with a tanker to ensure proper watering of the plants planted under the programme.

As per the Central Agencies report, 3.67 per cent greenery was improved in the state, Mr Reddy added.(UNI)