'Plant trees': Shah launches Rs 1,003 cr development projects in Ahmedabad

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the people of Ahmedabad should plant at least those many trees as the number of their family members in their residential societies

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday launched development projects costing Rs 1,003 crore in Gujarat's Ahmedabad city and appealed to the people to join the nation-wide tree plantation campaign to protect the environment.

Highlighting the importance of trees to protect the environment and the ozone layer, Shah said the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has taken the pledge to plant 30 lakh trees in 100 days for the coming generation, and he is closely associated with the campaign.

"This is a beautiful campaign, and it is a big thing that a municipal corporation will plant 30 lakh trees. But I would like to ask the citizens of Ahmedabad as to what will be your contribution?" he said.

Shah said the people of Ahmedabad should plant at least those many trees as the number of their family members in their residential societies, nearby waste lands, and their children's schools.

"Every citizen should make it the aim of their life to take steps to increase oxygen in the environment more than the carbon dioxide that we create through the use of vehicles, air conditioners and electricity," he said.

Shah said many lakhs and crores of trees were cut for the development of infrastructure such as roads, power stations, bridges, and this has caused a hole in the ozone layer.

This has posed a big threat to the earth and human existence, he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for the people to dedicate a tree in the name of their mother, and there is no other option than this to get rid of the debt "we owe to our mothers", the minister said.

"I would like to heartily appeal to every citizen of Ahmedabad to understand their responsibility and plant one tree each and take care of it like a child," he said.

Many cities have taken the pledge to plant lakhs of trees like Ahmedabad. PM Modi's 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam' has turned into a mass campaign and the people of Ahmedabad should also join it, Shah said.

He said that in the next two years, Ahmedabad will be developed like a future city "without a slum and smoke", and with every house having a toilet and health card.

Shah inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of 45 different projects costing Rs 1,003 crore, including two oxygen plants, waste collection vans, sewage treatment plants, a gymnasium and swimming pool, urban health centres, a yoga-cum-meditation centre, smart schools and aanganwadis (women and child care centres), in Ahmedabad.