Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Atiqul Islam has announced that 10 percent of holding tax will be waived for those who set up rooftop gardens.

He made the announcement as chief guest at the opening of the DNCC Tree Plantation Campaign 2021 at the trade fair ground in Agargaon, Dhaka, on Wednesday, 30 June.

Mayor Atiqul Islam said a total of two lakh saplings, donated by Team Group, will be planted along roads, canal banks, railway lines, lake shores, in school and college grounds and at other suitable places across the DNCC's 54 wards. Through greening, Dhaka will be built into an "oxygen hub", he said.

He said that to build a healthy, beautiful and liveable city for all, wealthy individuals and organisations must come forward alongside the DNCC to plant and look after enough saplings at suitable places. People must plant saplings of different species and care for them for their own sake and for future generations.

The mayor said every child aged up to two years will be given a sapling in a geo bag along with their birth certificate, funded by LankaBangla Finance. To survive in concrete Dhaka there is no alternative to trees for pure oxygen, he said, so everyone must plant trees for their own needs.

He also said work must be done to improve the environment to counter the adverse effects of climate change, and that waste of water and all other natural resources must be stopped and their measured use ensured.

Answering a question from journalists, he said 24 places under Dhaka North City Corporation are being turned into playgrounds, and eight of them will be opened right after the coronavirus pandemic.

Nahid Izahar Khan MP, Bangladesh Awami Jubo League general secretary Mainul Hossain Khan Nikhil and DNCC chief executive officer Md Selim Reza were among those present.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.