Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today wrote to Lt Governor Anil Baijal urging him to direct the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to participate in "mega plantation drive" to be conducted on September 8 as it had "refused" to do so.
The chief minister shot off the letter to the Lieutenant Governor after he held a review meeting where a junior level officer from DDA participated, according to Kejriwal.
In his letter to Baijal, Kejriwal alleged that the DDA refused to participate in the Delhi government's plantation drive.
A senior DDA official rejected the allegation, saying, "a top official of its landscape department, of the rank of additional commissioner, attended the meeting on behalf of the urban body."
"Our representative in the meeting did not say that we won't participate," he said.
"We already have a target of planting 5,000 trees on September 8, and therefore our manpower will be engaged in that work. Also, it doesn't make sense to devote manpower towards planting trees in areas which fall under the Delhi government's jurisdiction," he said.
Kejriwal said that Delhi is facing huge air pollution and to tackle that, Delhi government is conducting a mega tree plantation drive on September 8.
In the letter, Kejriwal said that on August 18, a meeting was called to plan plantation drive, but DDA did not participate in this meeting.
"When I called you (LG) and informed you, you were kind enough to say that you would ensure participation of VC, DDA in the next meeting.
"It pains me to inform that today, a junior level officer from DDA came to the meeting and informed that DDA has already planted 3 lakh trees and will not participate in this tree plantation drive," he said.
The chief minister claimed that when DDA official was informed that DDA had a target of 10 lakh trees during this year, the official of land-owning agency still refused to participate in tree plantation drive.
"I am writing this to request you to direct DDA to participate in this noble effort in which large number of Delhi citizens are expected to participate. This is an important effort in tackling pollution in Delhi," Kejriwal added.
Meanwhile, during the review, all the greening agencies presented their preparations for the mega plantation drive in September.
Most of the greening agencies were close to their target and seemed to be on the mark.
"However, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) was the only agency which was short of answers and was trailing by 70% of its greening target for the current year.
"The DDA refused to participate in the mega plantation drive," government said in a statement.
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