To implement the BNP's election manifesto, 25 crore trees are to be planted at all educational institutions in the country, and the education ministry is working towards that goal. The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) had instructed institutions to send details of how much land each has and how many saplings it needs. But most institutions sent no information within the deadline, and the education ministry is angered by the heads of institutions' foot-dragging.

DSHE officials said that even once the information arrives, it could take one and a half to two months to complete other work and send out the saplings. June and July are the main planting season. The ministry had therefore wanted to collect the demand by May and start sending saplings from mid-June, but without the information that is not possible.

Having received no demand after the first instruction, the directorate has again urged institutions to send the information. This was learnt from a DSHE letter dated 24 May, sent to the heads of all educational institutions and others concerned.

Attaching the ministry's original letter, it asks institutions to take the necessary steps in line with the 6 May letter from the education ministry's Secondary and Higher Education Division seeking tree-planting information.

The ministry's original letter says that on 10 March institutions were asked to send information in an attached form so that an action plan and strategy could be drawn up to properly implement the programme to plant 25 crore trees over the five years from 2026 to 2030. They were later asked to send details, including the land schedule, of where the trees would be planted under the plan. But no information had reached the ministry to date.

"In this situation, you are again instructed to ensure that information, including the land schedule, is sent on where the trees will be planted in order to properly implement the programme to plant 25 crore trees over the next five years (land information as per column 9: the land available at students' own homes, schools, colleges, madrasas and universities)," the letter says.

Asked about it, DSHE Director General Professor Dr Khan Moinuddin Al Mahmud Sohel said, "The letter was sent in March, but it did not get much response. On the ministry's instruction, a letter has been sent again asking for the information and the demand for trees. I hope we will quickly get the information from all institutions this time."

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