(1) A District Level Committee headed by the District Collector and consisting of District Forest Officer (Social Forestry) or equivalent level officer in charge of Haritha Haaram and respective Commissioners shall draw up ward wise and Municipality wise “green action plan” year wise for a period of 5 years which will clearly specify number of plants to be planted, keeping in mind the area, topography and availability of all possible spaces available for taking up plantations. The committee shall accordingly decide the size and location for setting up the municipality nursery which will be sufficient to meet the requirements of the municipality. The committee shall also decide the district specific plants and species to ensure maximum survival and growth of these plants. A campaign to propagate plantation involving all possible advertising means such as hoardings, cinema slides and other such means shall be taken up to keep up the momentum.
(2) The cost of maintaining the nursery and taking up plantations and their survival shall be met from the “Green Budget” earmarked in the municipality budget.
(3) The Chairperson or the Mayor and the Commissioner shall be responsible for setting up the nursery to take care of the requirements of the municipality.
The nursery should be able to meet the year wise requirements of the municipality anytime for a period of 5 years and additional capacity to meet the requirements also by the households to take up plantations within their individual plot premises. These saplings will be provided free of cost.
Municipality wise “Green Action Plan”.
36 [Act No. 11 of 2019] Function of Chairperson to incur contingent expenditure.
(4) The Commissioner shall designate special officers for ward(s) so as to cover all the wards who will be responsible for taking up the plantation and ensuring their survival in accordance with the municipality wise action plan.
(5) The ward member shall be responsible for taking up the plantations in his or her ward as per the ‘municipal green action plan’ and ensuring their survival.
(6) It shall be the responsibility of the ward member and the special officer to ensure 85% survival of plants. Likewise, it shall be the responsibility of the Chairperson or the Mayor and the Commissioner to ensure proper upkeep and growth of nursery. The District Collector shall have the power to form flying squads and take up regular inspections of these plantations ward wise and the state of Nursery.
(7) In all such cases where the survival is less than 85% and or there is no or lackadaisical involvement of the ward member or the special officer resulting in poor survival of plants, the ward member shall be disqualified and removed and likewise, the special officer shall be removed from service by the District Collector for his or her failure to ensure 85% survival of plantations.