HC notice to home secretary

Court threatens to try home official for contempt

Annoyed over the delay in filling up 174 Additional Public Prosecutors’ (APPs) posts by the state government despite the court orders, the Telangana High Court on Wednesday issued showcause notices to Ravi Gupta, principal secretary of the state home department, as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy was unhappy with the government apathy in implementing the court directions. The court observed that it seemed as if the government was of opinion that it was doing a favour to the court by implementing its orders.

Litigants are suffering a lot as criminal cases have been pending for several years. Most of the criminal courts in the state do not have full-time APPs. As it came to the notice of the court that 50 per cent of posts of APPs have been vacant in the state, the High Court had directed to fill the posts. On April 1, 2021, the court, on request of the government counsel, had given last chance and directed him to submit an affidavit regarding the appointments.

On Wednesday, the counsel for home, requested some more time to implement the court orders.

Justice Kohli disapproved the request and observed that the state government was in deep slumber and it seemed it wanted all criminal courts to also to be in deep slumber. “Should we put a gun on your heads to make you do administration work and implement court orders?”

The next phase of Haritha Haram, the Telangana government’s flagship programme to increase green cover in the state from 24 per cent to 33 per cent, will have Yadadri model plantation in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits.

The urban biodiversity wing of the corporation has procured one crore saplings for the upcoming Haritha Haram, which would be commenced soon based on the rainfall and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s instructions. The civic body, apart from taking up conventional plantation along lake bunds, buffer zones of water bodies including nalas and the Musi, will also take up multi-layered avenue plantation at designated locations in the city. According to GHMC officials, Yadadri pattern follows the Japanese Miyawaki technique (invented by botanist Akira Miyawaki) of growing urban forests in a short time and with less space. This unique method of afforestation is gaining popularity especially in urban areas which have less green space.

“The techniques may be the same, but we have not followed the system blindly. Since our soil and species are different, we have modified the Miyawaki model to suit our conditions,” officials said.

The government gave a call to name it as Yadadri model and implement it all over the state. Recently, chief secretary Somesh Kumar visited Kandlakoya oxygen urban forest taken up under the Japanese model and asked the officials to implement the same all over the state. Once developed, the forest also becomes a shelter for different birds and animals improving the biodiversity of the area. The corporation has already implemented the model on pilot basis during last year’s Haritha Haram programme at five locations.

This year Yadadri forest model will be implemented at about 40 locations including Venkateshwara Colony, Attapur, BHEL, open space in Nallagandla, Government Veterinary Hospital at Rajendra Nagar, Yapral and Malkajgiri to name a few. As many as 14,70,000 saplings will be planted under the Yadadri model.

A senior GHMC official said Somesh Kumar had instructed them to take up multi-layered avenue plantations at newly developed link roads and major central medians in the city. He said under multi-layered avenue plantation, more than two species of plants would be planted at the bottom of the central median as well as in the centre. “A whopping

40,30,000 lakh saplings would be planted as a part of single layered and multi-layered avenue plantations. As many as

5,50,000 saplings will be planted at government institutions, double bedroom housing projects and graveyards. About 4,70,000 saplings would be planted near lake bunds, open spaces, and buffer zones of water bodies,” he said. The official said the plantation programme on pilot basis had already been taken up near Shamshabad, immediately after the PVNR Expressway (left side of the road).

The corporation, under the mega plantation programme, would plant

4,90,000 saplings along the Musi and nalas, 13,40,000 would be planted in colonies apart from tree parks, newly proposed parks and theme parks. About 13,50,000 shrubs and hedge plantations will be taken at flyovers and

3,00,000 saplings will be planted in forest parks designated locations in all six zones in the GHMC limits.