Series of events mark Van Mahotsav
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, August 6
A number of programmes were held to mark the state-level Van Mahotsav here on Tuesday. Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian led the programmes by paying a visit to the natural farm at Dhirekot village, which has a 32-acre farm to grow organic fresh farm produce. He observed various organically grown crops such as sugarcane, turmeric, basmati rice, vegetables, pulses, fruit trees and other crops in the farm.
On the occasion, Chief Agriculture Officer Tajinder Singh and farm in-charge Rajbir Singh discussed nutrient management, prevention of insects and diseases through organic methods while organically growing crops. He said all crops are grown and processed in the farm without using any chemicals.
Jograjbir Singh Gill, Raman Kumar, Agriculture Officer Bhupinder Singh, Agriculture Development Officer Lovepreet Singh, Sukhraj Singh Sidhu, Agriculture Extension Officer Baljinder Singh, Harkirat Singh, ASI Upkar Singh, among others, were present during the field visit.
In another programme, Cabinet Ministers Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and Harbhajan Singh ETO along with people of their respective constituencies planted saplings and encouraged people to take care of the environment.
While planting saplings in his Ajnala assembly constituency, Dhaliwal said before August 15, he would plant about one and a half lakh saplings in Ajnala. He encouraged people to plant more trees at their houses and fields.
He said they have been planting saplings on government land for the past few days. On the occasion, Ajnala SDM Arvindarpal Singh, Tehsildar Lachman Singh, nagar panchayat president Jaspal Singh Dhillon, Joga Singh, Rajbir Singh and others were present.
Similarly, Cabinet Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO celebrated Van Mahotsav by planting saplings along with children and teachers at Government Senior Secondary School, Beas. He urged people to plant more saplings to provide a clean and green Punjab to future generations.
In another programme, Amritsar Central assembly MLA Dr Ajay Gupta along with the ADC (Urban) planted a large number of saplings from Lohgarh Gate to Lahori Gate on the occasion of the 73rd Van Mahotsav today.
Dr Gupta said after Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann planted saplings during a state-level programme in Hoshiarpur on Tuesday, he and other MLAs followed suit and planted saplings in their respective constituencies. He suggested that people should gift plants on birthdays and marriage anniversaries so that area under the green cover could be increased.
Plantation was started in the Central Assembly constituency today along with ADC, Urban Development, Nikas Kumar. He said during the financial year, the state government in collaboration with the Forest Department set a target of planting about three crore saplings across the state during the monsoon season and Amritsar district was given the target of planting 17 lakh saplings. He said the area under forest cover in the state has come down to 5.92 per cent and to improve the environment, a new initiative has been started by the government to increase the area under trees and forests to 7.5 per cent by 2030. He said apart from forest land, plants are also being planted on a large scale on non-forest land.
