Rawalpindi , (Parliament Times) : More than 800,000 plants of different species of fruits and medicinal value would be planted with the active participation of the masses in the district during the ongoing tree plantation campaign”, said Deputy Commissioner Chakwal Mr. Bilal Hashim while planting sapling in out skirts of the district.
He was also accompanied by the Divisional Forest Officer (Extension) Rawalpindi Division Jameel Ahmed Bangash, Coordinator to Punjab Minister for Higher Education Raja Usman, District Range Forest Officer (Extension) Chakwal Sher Afzal Raja.
Under the auspices of District Range Forest Office (Extension) Chakwal, the team headed by DC Chakwal planted 5000 saplings in a single row in Akhuwat College, a charity institution located in Chakwal. Girls and boys students of the college also participated in tree plantation campaign.
On this occasion, the Principal of Akhuwat College Saba Hassam announced to donate 1 kanal of college land for the purpose of developing a nursery over it.
DC Chakwal said the actions driven by full devotion, commitment and enthusiasm do not go without laying positive results. “We are putting the same spirit in public to make them active for plantation at mass level”, he added. He further said that 3000 kanal of more neglected barren land had been identified by the District Range Forest Office which would be made fertile and green on the expenses of the Punjab government. “5 thousand kanal of such land have already been made productive where trees of different types have been planted by the local office of the forest department”, he mentioned.
District Range Forest Officer (Extension) Chakwal Sher Afzal Raja handed over 600 plants of different types of fruits to the administration of Akhuwat College to grow them in their college. He also applauded the efforts of DC Chakwal Bilal Hashim and other officers of district administration who helped the forest department to score a big success in tree plantation. He said that 3000 kanal of more barren land would be cultivated for forests under “Up-Scaling of Green Pakistan Program” launched by the Punjab Forest Department.
Sher Afzal Raja further said that the Punjab Forest Department is bearing all the expenses for the resettlement of all the barren lands owned by the farmers in the division. He said that this scheme was a part of the success of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Movement and Forest Department employees had been working on it day and night.
