Government plans an inquiry committee to review tree plantation

Maharashtra's Minister of State for Forests Dattatraya Bharane, on Wednesday, March 10, 2021, announced a 16-member Legislative Assembly committee to probe the special drive to plant 33 crore trees in the state during the BJP government. 

This committee has been asked to submit a report to the House in the next four months, said Minister of State Dattatraya Bharane. As per reports, this is likely to get former Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar in trouble.

Maharashtra State Congress president and MLA Nana Patole had demanded an inquiry into the ambitious tree planting drive promised by former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and former Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar. 

Funds for the scheme were spent from the government, and were also allocated by the private sector. Furthermore, Patole had raised questions regarding the saplings asking where did they come from for this campaign, the cost, and the number of trees, eventually leading to the corruption in the scheme.

Meanwhile, Ramesh Korgaonkar also  presented a question regarding the same in this regard last week, and stated that the tree planting campaign will have to be investigated by a committee of the legislature. The report will be submitted to the House in the next four to six months, testified Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. 

Accordingly, the Minister of State for Forests announced the committee, which the Deputy CM clarified that their appointment will be confirmed by till March 31, 2021, and a maximum period of 6 months will be given for the work. The Forest Department had also received a fund of INR 2,429.78 crore from 2016-17 to 2019-20 for a special campaign to plant 33 crore trees in the state which has been fully utilized.

Under this campaign, a total of 28 crore 27 lakh trees were planted by the forest department, of which 75.63 per cent seedlings were said to be alive by the end of October 2020 and are being maintained.

The government has also confirmed that it will not allow any shortage of funds and ensure that the trees survive. Present in the committee are members from the government, namely Nana Patole, Sunil Prabhu, Uday Singh Rajput, Balaji Kalyankar, Ashok Pawar, Manikrao Kokate, Sunil Bhusara, Shekhar Nikam, Subhash Dhote, Amit Jhanak, Sangram Thopte, Ashish Shelar, Nitesh Rane, Atul Bhatkhalkar, Sameer Kunavar and Narendra Bhondekar.