Karachi: The Sindh government will not grant approvals for new societies and development projects until the developers ensure the plantation of trees, a news source quoted Sindh Local Government (LG) & Forests Minister Nasir Hussain Shah as saying.
He made these remarks while chairing a meeting of the head
of different municipal agencies in the province. He directed the Sindh Building
Control Authority (SBCA) to ensure that new building projects across the
province featured tree plantation.
On the other hand, the LG Secretary Roshan Ali Shaikh briefed the meeting that the Sindh LG Department had formulated a plan for conducting plantation drives at 4,000 different locations across the province. He added that the department would also reserve certain sections of public parks for non-governmental organisations to carry out plantation campaigns there. He said that this effort would help uplift the conditions of these parks.
The secretary revealed that they would soon start
implementing the initiative.
Meanwhile, National Forum for Environment & Health President Naeem Qureshi suggested to the meeting that the government should adopt policies such as ‘adopt-a-park’ and public-private partnerships for enhancing status of public parks in Sindh. He added that the corporate sector and various community groups could play their role for this purpose.
Qureshi stated that the provincial government should impose
a complete ban on cutting of trees in the province, along with authorities
concerned ensuring the protection of existing ones.
The meeting also constituted a committee for preventing the cutting of mangroves in Sindh’s coastal areas. In this regard, Shah asked the appointed committee officials to start taking action immediately; including registration of criminal cases against individuals involved in tree cutting in the province.
