THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Fifteen thousand houses in Thiruvananthapuram district have been made green homes, district panchayat president VK Madhu has said. An ambitious programme is being conducted in the district to regain organic farming and traditional lifestyle. He was speaking after inaugurating a workshop titled ‘Gruhachaithanyam: Veettil Oru Veppum Kariveppum’ at the Collectorate conference hall on Friday.
21 lakh saplings of fruit-bearing trees were grown last year. The project aims to make all grama panchayats as medicinal villages. At present 38 panchayats are participating in the programme. Veppu and Kariveppu saplings grown in the 38 panchayat-level nurseries will be distributed to the residences in the panchayats. The saplings grown utilising the manpower of MGNREGS scheme would be distributed on November 1, the Kerala Piravi Day.
Panchayat presidents and MGNREGS officials attended the workshop. State Medicinal Plants Board executive member Dr P Sanjeevkumar presided over the function. Executive member KV Govindan presented the report. Participants of the workshop included chief executive officer Dr K Radhakrishnan, MGNREGS joint programme coordinator Balachandran Nair, Haritha Keralam Mission coordinator D Humayun and people’s representatives.