Shariatpur district administration is handing saplings of various flowering and fruit trees to secondary school students in six upazilas. The planting initiative marks 50 years since the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, received the Joliot-Curie Peace Prize.

On 19 June, Deputy Commissioner Parvez Hasan distributed 5,800 saplings of various kinds to higher secondary and secondary students at the Gosairhat upazila ground, including students of Government Shamsur Rahman College and Idilpur High School.

According to the Deputy Commissioner's office, the district administration has launched the tree-planting programme with various stakeholders, pledging to build a green Shariatpur, to celebrate 50 years of the Joliot-Curie Peace Prize. As part of the programme, fruit, medicinal and timber saplings are being planted in different places. In Gosairhat, 5,800 saplings were distributed and planted with the help of the upazila administration. The saplings were supplied by the Shariatpur Forest Department.

Deputy Commissioner Parvez Hasan said: "We are celebrating 50 years of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman receiving the Joliot-Curie Peace Prize a little differently. In Gosairhat upazila, 5,800 saplings have been planted and distributed among higher secondary and secondary students. The people of Shariatpur will make this special achievement memorable by planting 50,000 fruit, medicinal and timber saplings."

Present at the event were upazila nirbahi officer Kafi Bin Kabir, assistant commissioner (land) Sujan Das Gupta, assistant commissioner and executive magistrate Abdur Rahim, and Government Shamsur Rahman College principal Fazlul Haque, among others.

The Deputy Commissioner inaugurated the work on 15 June with tree planting at Purba Damudya Adarsha High School in Damudya upazila. By 22 June, 50,000 trees of various species will be planted at educational institutions, along roadsides, at Sheikh Hasina Ashrayan project sites, on abandoned and fallow land and in homesteads across the district.

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