In a bid to reduce air pollution and combat the heat wave in Delhi, a meeting was held here on Tuesday to execute the 12-point Summer Action Plan formulated by the Delhi government.

Representatives of over 25 agencies met under the chairmanship of Delhi’s Forest and Environment Minister Gopal Rai in the Delhi Secretariat, aimed to make the tree plantation campaign successful, an official communiqué said.

Rai said that all the agencies in the city are making positive efforts to make Delhi pollution free, and added that the tree plantation campaign is being run every year to increase the green belt of the national capital and reduce pollution levels.

The Minister pointed that the main measure to save Delhi from heat wave is to increase the green area, and the target is to plant 2 crore saplings in 5 years to improve the overall environment, he said, further claiming that the government has achieved the target of planting about 2.05 crore saplings in the fourth year of its tenure.

He said that while the green area in Delhi was 20 per cent in the year 2013, due to the efforts of the Kejriwal government, it has increased to 23.06 per cent in the year 2021, he claimed.

Also, Delhi has become number one in the whole country in terms of per capita forest cover of cities, the minister added.

The meeting was attended by the senior officials of the Forest Department, DDA, MCD, PWD, Education Department, NDMC, Delhi Jal Board, Environment Department, DSIIDC, CPWD, NDPL, IFCD, Northern Railway, and the BSES.

After the meeting, Rai said that the Delhi Government has set a target of planting and distributing 64 lakh saplings this year – 24.83 lakh big plants and 31.57 lakh shrubs, and 7.74 lakh saplings will be distributed free of cost to the people of Delhi.

Free distribution of saplings will be done during the tree plantation campaign, and Rai directed the Forest Department officials to get the details of tree plantation from various departments.

Instructions have also been given to all the departments concerned to conduct a third party audit to check the survival rate of the plants planted in Delhi under the tree plantation campaign, the minister said.

He also appealed to the people of Delhi to cooperate with the government to take Delhi forward at the global level in the field of environment.