Vijayawada: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu launched Mission Vanam-Manam by planting saplings of Neem and Raavi at Sunkollu village under Nuzvid mandal in Krishna district on Friday. The objective of the mission is to increase the green cover in the state by 50 per cent by the year 2029. Andhra currently has 23 per cent green cover (forest area) and another 3 per cent non-forest, besides 13 lakh hectares of degraded forest. The Chief Minister gave a call to everybody to plant one crore saplings on Friday alone.

“We have to double the green cover by taking up plantation in four lakh acres per annum in the next 10 years. We have to grow 25 to 30 crore trees every year, the Chief Minister said. Saplings planted would be geo-tagged while a geo-fencing would be provided to guard the plantation. Urban forests would be developed in all municipal corporations in the state.

The CM announced that women self-help groups would be engaged to check the growth of the planted saplings and will be given 100 days of work every year for this under the MGNREGA. He stated that the number of saplings planted by individuals will be considered for transfer of job and also expressed that it would be considered even in giving promotions and the students who plant more saplings will be given additional marks of five. The state government would also establish an action plan for implementation of the Mission.

30,000 saplings distributed in Guntur:

In all, 30,000 geo-tagged saplings were distributed under Vanam-Manam programme to the public of Guntur city. The Guntur Municipal Corporation conducted simultaneous plantation of 30,000 saplings in 62 wards of the Guntur city on Friday. The GMC collected details of the house owners with contact numbers to monitor the growth of the saplings for the next two years.
Minister for social welfare R. Kishore Babu and Guntur MP Galla Jayadev started the mass saplings distribution programme at Postal Colony on Friday at Guntur. Spealing on the occasion, Mr Kishore Babu said that greenery is 65 per cent in the Japan and Japanese nurture various types of fruit trees and they will nurture bonsai trees in small places.

But greenery is only 23 per cent in our country. So, we should follow the Japanese for the increase of greenery. He appealed to the public to grow seasonal fruit plants under Vanam-Manam programme to get fruits free of cost. MP Mr Jayadev said that AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu planned to increase greenery to 50 per cent by the year 2029 and asked the public to monitor the saplings. Guntur West MLA M. Venugopala Reddy suggested the public to nurture saplings like their children and asked to stop cutting the trees. GMC additional commi-ssioner Krishna Kapardhi said that GMC is providing tree guards and protecting the saplings through geo-tagging system. He said that saplings would be planted in the central dividers of roads.