Plant trees, earn lakhs: civic body
MUMBAI: IN a bid to enourage plantatio n of trees, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has announced prizes to the tune of Rs 2.4 crore. “The award for planting the highest number of trees would be ward wise and each winner will get a prize of Rs 10 lakh,” said Swadheen Kshatriya, municipal commissioner. The BMC will also plant trees at all empty mill lands alloted to it. According to the state mill development policy if an erstwhile mill land is over 10 hectares, the BMC will be allotted 33 per cent of the land for setting up recreational gardens. Last month the civic body had said it would plant one lakh trees this year. Of these the BMC will plant 10,850 trees on its own properties, said Kshatriya.
In 2005-06 the BMC had planted 10,161 trees, the number came down to 8,794 in 2006-07. In 2007-08 it was 7,780 and reached 5262 in 2008-09.