July 09, 2006	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 12, 1427

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MIANWALI, July 8: The second ruthless massacring of trees by the Tehsil Municipal Administration has shocked every resident in the district.

The first massacre happened a few months back when the irrigation department had uprooted hundreds of full-grown trees on right and left banks of Thal Canal during its remodeling process. The canal passes through the town.

In spite of canal remodeling, trees could have been saved from being uprooted, but nobody had bothered to preserve the natural asset.

Trees were planted on canal banks in 1982 by then deputy commissioner Maj Ziaul Haq (retired), who had an aesthetic sense to beautify the town.

The TMA has deprived the town of almost all trees grown in areas that falls under its jurisdiction.

The TMA has also uprooted trees in areas that come in the revenue limits of the provincial government. However, timely action by the district collector has saved some trees after he wrote a letter to the TMA, forbidding them from felling trees on the provincial land.

The TMA has `earned’ Rs2.5 million after selling some 750 trees of different varieties, including rare species. Wasting no time, the contractor has chopped off all these trees after the auction, perhaps in anticipation of resistance from environment department, NGOs and environmentalists.

Some of the chopped trees, planted during the British period, were providing a greenish look to town.

While citizens are protesting against the TMA for massacring of trees, the district government and the district administration have taken no notice of it.

The tehsil council had decided a few month backs to conduct a survey of trees falling in its jurisdiction so that sick and worn out trees could be disposed of.

Numbering all town’s trees, TMA officials, without determining the age and condition of trees, proposed the sale of whole the lot. The tehsil nazim advertised the auction of these trees, but it had to be cancelled, as bidders could not offer the desired bid of over Rs2 million.

The second auction fetched a price of Rs2.5 million that got the final approval of the TMA.

Notables including, provincial revenue minister Gul Hameed Khan Rokhri, former MNA Inamullah Khan Niazi and former district nazim Humair Hayat Khan Rokhri, have strongly criticized the callous act of the TMA.

They further asked as to what development project the tehsil nazim would complete with the meagre income of Rs2.5 million generated at the cost of greenery and environment of the town.

They also took exception to the culpable silence and inaction in this respect by the district government and officials concerned in the district administration.

Tehsil Nazim Amjad Ali Khan said that he wanted to substitute old trees with the new and beautiful varieties of trees like date, bottleneck and plum.