CM Fadnavis says, 'Govt to plant 300 crore trees over next seven years'

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has announced two ambitious initiatives a massive drive to plant 300 crore trees over the next seven years to boost forest cover and a plan to expand Global Capability Centres GCCs beyond Mumbai and Pune to cities like Nagpur Nashik and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar to promote regional development and job creationRs 1500Monthly amount received by Ladki Bahin Yojana beneficiariesDevendra Fadnavis chief ministerGreen boostThe Maharashtra government has set a target to increase the statersquos forest cover to 33 per cent while the current forest cover stands around 2123 per cent To achieve this goal the government would ideally require the plantation of 225 crore trees but the Mahayuti government has announced an ambitious plan to plant 300 crore trees over the next seven yearsClimatebased plantationThe plantation drive will be carried out in a scientific manner keeping in mind different agroclimatic zones across the state according to the chief minister The focus will be on identifying areas where tree cover is low and where forests can be expandedOpposition reacts to budgetShiv Sena UBT leader Uddhav Thackeray on Friday strongly criticised the state Budget accusing the government of pushing the state into a debt trap He said the ruling BJP may not remain in power till 2047 and alleged that the government was piling up borrowings while presenting an ambitious longterm vision Referring to the tree announcement Thackeray questioned where the land for such a massive plantation drive would come from and whether the government had identified specific areas for the projectGCC expansionIn the first phase the Maharashtra government is working on the implementation of the GCC in MumbaiPune and even established a development centre in Mumbai But as the process moves ahead in the coming years the state plans to expand these cities like Nagpur Nashik and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar The idea is to have balanced regional development across MaharashtraLadki Bahin compensationDeputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde maintained that this government has delivered on promises and at the appropriate time the monthly financial assistance paid to Ladki Bahin Yojana beneficiaries will be increased to R2100 from the existing R1500Sunetra Pawar remembers AjitIn an interaction with the media Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar said that her husband and predecessor Ajit Pawar was actively working on the state budget till January 27 a day before the plane crash in Baramati in which he died She thanked CM Devendra Fadnavis for attributing the budget to Pawar saying that announcing a memorial and an award in the late finance ministerrsquos name would be a true tribute to his legacy