Call for green challenge in Warangal

Warangal: Take Haritha Haram drive as a green challenge, Warangal Urban District Collector Prashanth Jeevan Patil told the people while participating in Gram Sabhas at Ganturpalli and Seethanagaram villages under Hasanparthy mandal on Wednesday. "The onus is on the residents to keep their villages clean and green.

Don't think that it is the responsibility of local bodies," the Collector said, appealing to people to gird up their loins to make it happen. The results are disappointing even though the government has been conducting plantation drive for the last four years, he said.

The government allows the local bodies to engage watchers for the protection of saplings. For protecting 400 saplings per kilometre, a watcher would get Rs 5,250 per month under employment guarantee scheme, he said. With each gram panchayat to have four kilometres of avenue plantation, the local body can deploy four watchers, he added. Referring to the hike in the wage of sanitation workers, the Collector told them to work with focused approach.

Elsewhere taking part in the Gram Sabha of Kothakonda village under Bheemadevarapally mandal along with Zilla Parishad Chairman M Sudheer Kumar, the Collector told the residents not to expect someone to come and do well for their village. "Make it part of life," the Collector said, referring to clean and green surroundings.

Speaking on the occasion, Sudheer Kumar emphasised the need for protecting the environment for the future generations. "Take social activist Anna Hazare, who turned his drought-prone village Ralegan Siddhi a model for water conservation and use of non-conventional energy," he said. He appealed to people to construct water harvesting pits, so that to improve groundwater table. He told the local body to slap fine on those who fell trees.