The Jagananna Pachatoranam program carried out in Srikakulam district by spending lakhs of rupees has gone down the drain. The situation turned out like this because of the lack of supervision and negligence of the officials.
Officials decided to have greenery on the open lands before giving them to beneficiaries. They took up plantations under the Jagananna Pachatoranam program two months back. Post plantation these saplings were not taken care of. The saplings dried up even before the beneficiaries could take their houses.
In Srikakulam district alone 39,000 saplings were planted. The authorities planted saplings in 917 plots in rural and urban areas. Total expenditure was Rs 24.18 lakh which includes Rs 62 for one sapling. The maintenance funds were also given additionally. As per the officials, only 85 percent of the saplings remained that means 7,500 saplings dried up. The saplings dried up because of the non-availability of water and lack of supervision as the area was at a faraway place. There is a talk that if there was proper supervision, there would have been greenery at the house sites.
Now officials state that the plantation of saplings will be done again under the Employment Guarantee Scheme. However, people opine that the program would benefit if a person is handed over the responsibility of taking care of the saplings.