Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) has taken a special initiative to make the road dividers on the capital's busy streets green and attractive.

With support from Sajida Foundation, the tree planting and greening programme has begun on the road divider under the metro rail from Paltan to the Dainik Bangla intersection.

DSCC administrator Md Abdus Salam, a freedom fighter, inaugurated the programme at an event under the Secretariat metro station on Thursday, 3 September.

In his opening speech, the administrator said social organisations, NGOs and ordinary citizens must come forward alongside the city corporation to keep Dhaka clean and environment-friendly. Without everyone's joint effort, Dhaka's overall environment cannot be protected, he said.

He said trees were being planted at every suitable spot in the DSCC area. As part of the national plan to plant 25 crore trees in five years, DSCC's initial target is 3 lakh, but it plans to plant more, and about 67,000 trees have already been planted.

Praising Sajida Foundation's varied social work, he said the organisation is an important partner of the corporation not only in environmental improvement but also in cleaning and vaccination programmes. If other social organisations and NGOs come forward in the same way, civic services in Dhaka will become more dynamic.

Stressing public awareness, Md Abdus Salam said it would be a great help to the city corporation if shops and businesses stopped dumping waste on the streets and road dividers. Everyone should try on their own initiative to keep nearby roads and footpaths clean, he said.

Referring to the challenges of unplanned urbanisation in Old Dhaka, he said the densely populated area has many civic problems. The corporation is working tirelessly to solve them, but the work would be easier if local people, including young people and students, came forward to protect the environment in their own areas.

On hawker management, he said plans were being made with the humanitarian side of hawkers' livelihoods in mind, but there would be no scope for hawkers on every footpath or main road. Discussions have been held with those concerned in line with the ministry's policy, and effective steps will be taken soon.

He said the road and footpaths from Zero Point to Sadarghat in particular would be kept completely free of hawkers, and urged those concerned to move on their own before eviction. Arrangements are also being made for registered hawkers to sell at alternative places, such as a holiday market in Gulistan and a night market after 4pm, he said.

Finally, calling on every citizen to plant at least one tree, the DSCC administrator said the city could quickly be made green if everyone planted one tree each.

DSCC chief executive officer Md Khayber Rahman, chief waste management officer Air Commodore Md Mahabubur Rahman Talukder and senior officials of Sajida Foundation were present at the inauguration.

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