Green Visakha: City Green drive fails

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Feb 14, 2013: The much hyped Green Visakha project, envisaged to make the city pollution-free, failed to achieve its set target.

Come March, and it will be one year that the Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy launched the project, a brain child of the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment, Science and Technology and Rajya Sabha member T. Subbarami Reddy.

In an attempt to check pollution in the city, surrounded by several industries and PSUs, the project aimed at planting 40 lakh saplings, in the next five years, with a target of eight lakh saplings each year.

Vuda is leading the project with its technical and supervisory support whereas; the AP Pollution Control Board and the district administration are coordinating the project with the support of PSUs and industries. Around 29 PSUs and other private industries were given targets of planting saplings and also the post plantation care.

While the efforts of Coromandel and NTPC were appreciated, as they are almost up to the mark, in planting the saplings as per the target given, Visakhapatnam Port Trust, HPCL and Visakhapatnam Steel Plant were lagging behind.

There were many review meetings held where PSUs were urged to reach the set targets. But there seems to be no response from them.

According to the official statistics, available with this newspaper, this year only 39 per cent of the target was achieved.

For instance against the target of planting 1.25 lakh saplings, VSP could plant only 22,000 and out of them only 40 per cent plants survived. VPT was also given a target to plant 1.25 lakh saplings and the port authorities could plant only 15,000.

Interestingly, while PSUs were not so serious about the project, private industries were successful in meeting the targets.

There are also objections raised by encroachers when that land is visited to plant saplings.

“We have been regularly monitoring the project. It’s unfortunate that even 50 per cent of the target was not achieved. We seek the intervention of district collector in the issue,” Vuda’s DFO, B.V.A. Krishna Murthy, told this correspondent.