Friday, May 17, 2002
Friday, May 17, 2002 |
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Karnataka-Bangalore
By Our Staff Reporter
The Speakers at the function at which the MoU was signed were of the view that the programme would help grow avenue trees, and herbal and sacred gardens, enhance agricultural production, and meet the biomass requirements of the poor. N. Vishwanathan, Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner, and Yellappa Reddy of the trust signed the MoU in the presence of the Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, and Sri Balagangadharanatha Swamiji of the Adichunchanagiri Math, religious heads of various maths, and senior ministers. Around 30 religious heads are members of the trust. Mr. Krishna has constituted a high-level monitoring committee under the Chairmanship of Mr. Vishwanathan, with the principal secretaries to the departments of Forest, Revenue, Water Resources, Public Works, and Horticulture to oversee the implementation of the programme in coordination with the trust and the swamijis. The committee will meet after 10 days to work out the modalities. Mr. Krishna said the Government and the trust, along with the swamijis, would motivate the five crore people in the State to plant an equal number of saplings and seedlings. People who visited temples, masjids, and churches would be motivated to involve themselves in the sacred duty of raising trees on roads and in front of their houses, just as our ancestors developed "gundutopu" in villages, he added. He said he had been eager to implement the suggestion made by the Adichunchanagiri Swamiji that a programme for growing trees should be implemented. He had placed it before the Cabinet and got its approval. The officers of all departments, local bodies, and panchayats, apart from 150 NGOs, would play an active role in making the programme a success. The Government and the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike would plant 1,000 saplings in each of the 100 wards from May 21, the death anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi. He hoped these steps would help increase the tree cover. Sri Shivaratri Deshikendra Swamiji of Suttur Math regretted that the people did not love Nature anymore. Unlike human beings and animals, trees could not resist those who felled them or cut their branches. Destruction of trees would have a devastating effect on health and economy, he said. The Archbishop of Bangalore, Rev. Ignatius Pinto, said he would ensure that students in all the educational institutions under his command participated in the programme. Sri Balagangadharanatha Swamiji said the trust had planted 60 lakh saplings with the Government's assistance last year. It had raised two lakh coconut seedlings, five lakh seedlings of other varieties, and three crore bamboo seedlings at its nurseries across the State, and planted them. The ministers, K.H. Ranganath, T.B. Jayachandra, Raja Amareswara Naik, H.C. Srikantaiah, H.K. Patil, and Kumar Bangarappa, Sri Shivarudra Swamiji of Belimath, and representatives of Siddaganga Math, Pejawar Math, Taralabalu Math, Sri Manjunatheswara Kshetra of Dharmasthala, Moorusavira Math, Mahabodhi Society, Su Wood Masjid-e-Qader, St. Joseph's Church, the Valmiki Ashrama, the Gurudwara Gurusingh Sabha, the Basti Math, and the Irani Math attended the function.
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