Power minister plants bakul trees to preserve environment

The state Power minister, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, planted three bakul trees in the premises of Bidyut Unnayan Bhavan at Salt Lake on Monday to mark the World Environment Day.

The three trees have been named Maa, Mati and Manush respectively, dedicating them to the people of Bengal who supported the overall development carried out by the Mamata Banerjee government in the past six years.

Chattopadhyay said that the reason behind planting bakul tress is that they don't get uprooted even during storms. On Monday morning, Chattopadhyay also participated in a rally on the World Environment Day from Golpark to Southern Avenue. Hundreds of people from different walks of life also participated in the rally. He also planted several bakul trees in his Rashbehari Assembly constituency.

Samir Banerjee and Swapan Banerjee, eminent social workers working in the field of environment preservation and awareness creation, also participated in the rally in the morning of the World Environment Day.

Several celebrities like actor Rituparna Sengupta also participated in the rally.

In North Howrah, Lakshmi Ratan Shukla, the Youth Services and Sports minister, also participated in a tree planting programme followed by a rally to create awareness among the people of the area. He planted several trees in different pockets of North Howrah.

A portion of North Howrah is an industrial zone and such a rally would help in building awareness among the people on the necessity of taking steps to check pollution.

Shukla said: "Encouraging people to plant more trees is a step that we all must take as this helps in minimising pollution. Thus, we held a rally in the area to create awareness among the people."

Meanwhile, Haldia Refinery also undertook a tree plantation drive at its site and the World Environment Day flag was unfurled by its executive director, C K Tiwari.