BENGALURU: In order to safeguard roadside saplings and trees, the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department is entrusting road contractors who construct and develop roads, to plant saplings and take care of them till their defect liability period is complete. Depending on the plants’ survival rate, the contractors will be given their security deposit, RDPR Minister Krishna Byregowda said.
The minister told reporters on Saturday said since 2000, the state has seen 15 drought years. “Each time a drought year is declared, we take up short-term measures like supplying drinking water, fodder and other relief. As a long-term measure, the government has launched Jalamrutha, where the state will observe 2019 as the ‘Year of Water’ through water literacy, conservation, rejuvenation of water bodies and creation of new ones. Tree planting is part of the campaign,” he said.
As part of this drive, the government will issue orders making it mandatory for road contractors to include tree planting estimate for the entire stretch they develop or construct. There is a defect liability period for roads for three years, during which contractors have to rectify the road surface if there is any damage like potholes or breaks. “On these lines, we are making it mandatory to plant trees and take care of them. Depending on the survival rate, the security deposit of contractors will be returned,’’ he added.
RDPR’s target is to plant 30 lakh saplings on a single day, during the Environment Day celebrations on June 11. In the over 6,000 Gram Panchayats, each GP has to plant 500 saplings in schools, hospitals and other premises. Survival of these plants will be made the GP members’ responsibility. There are plans to plant two crore saplings across the state, throughout the year.
With the help of Karnataka State Remote Sensing Application Centre, 20,000 locations have been identified to construct water harvesting structures like check dams and krishi hondas, where the Centre has given along with longitude and latitude. “We have already completed around 3,000 structures, another 3,000 are under construction and by end of March 2020, the state will have 20,000 such structures. We will take NREGA’s help,’’ he said.
He also said that they are going to issue a government order making it mandatory for all government buildings in rural areas to instal rain water harvesting apparatus.