Sushil Kumar Modi

Patna, May 31: The Bihar government would carry out an afforestation drive with the help of school students apart from using Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) funds to increase the green cover in the state.

Setting an ambitious target of achieving 15 per cent green cover area in the state, Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said: “The state’s green cover area is 9.89 per cent, which we intend to increase to 15 per cent in the next five years. For this purpose, the chief minister will launch the scheme on June 5, the World Environment Day, which will be carried out using MNREGA funds. We will plant 10 crore trees in a year beginning this July.”

Modi was speaking on the sidelines of his weekly janata darbar in Patna.

Under the scheme, every panchayat would have to plant 6,000 trees every year, which would be maintained for the next five years in groups of 200 trees of different types, Modi said, adding that each family would be entrusted with the job of maintaining the trees for 100 days.

Around Rs 3,600 crore has to be spent during the current fiscal under MNREGA in which afforestation has got the second priority, Modi said, lauding the efforts of Tirhut zone commissioner S.M. Raju for his efforts to carry out a huge afforestation drive in the division using MNREGA funds. He said the scheme would be modelled on Muzaffarpur’s success story.

“Under the plantation scheme, labourers would be given full day wage only when the trees’ survival rate is recorded more than 90 per cent. Labourers would be given half-day wage if the survival rate of the trees is below 90 per cent and above 75 per cent,” Modi, who also holds forest and environment department, said.

School students would also be involved in the government’s afforestation drive, Modi said, adding that after reviewing the scheme being run at the school levels since 2006, some loopholes have been found.

“Now, we will re-launch the scheme again on June 5 in a different format with the help of member students of 8,500 eco clubs being run in as many schools. Each club having 40 to 50 students as its members will be included in the scheme,” Modi said. He said the focus would now shift from individual plantation to group plantation.

“Each group of five students would plant and maintain 10 trees. The top three teams would be awarded,” Modi said. He added that all afforestation drives under MNREGA would be carried out near national or state highways, canals, ponds and the students would carry it out primarily on and around their school premises.