We must follow our ancient cultural system: Lt Governor

Jammu, Dec 18: Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha Saturday inaugurated the ‘Adopt-A-Park’ programme of Jammu Municipal Corporation, which will provide opportunity to local communities, welfare associations and other organizations to contribute in upkeep and clean up of neighborhood parks.
As many as 17 public parks have already been adopted by aware and responsible citizens at different places of Jammu city, under the initiative.
While speaking at the event organized at Trikuta Nagar, the Lt Governor called upon Individuals, Businesses and other organizations to adopt a park and make a difference in their neighborhood. He said that people’s participation, community support is required to establish beautiful and well-maintained parks, clean and free of litter.
The Lt Governor asserted that it is our collective responsibility to build a resilient ecosystem to address the challenges of climate change. Conservation and protection of trees and plants is embedded in our ancient culture and traditions.
“We must follow our ancient cultural system which propagates environmental protection and talks about our coexistence in complete harmony with the nature”, he added.
On the occasion, the Lt Governor congratulated Dr Mitali Gupta and Jammu Municipal Corporation for starting a new revolution with the unique and important initiative. He said that Adopt-A-Park is an opportunity to bring consciousness about environment conservation to every household.
“Instead of slogans, conservation of trees and plants should become a part of our daily life to make our city more beautiful, pollution-free and eco-friendly”, he added.
The Lt Governor said that there has never been a more urgent need to revive ecology than today. He observed that the Hon’ble Prime Minister has made many efforts to give a safe environment to the coming generations and has urged the people to make collective efforts for conservation of nature and its resources.
The Lt Governor also noted that the J&K government is running several campaigns in collaboration with schools, non-government institutions, village panchayats and urban plantation committees to combat the challenges of global warming and climate change.
“UT administration has set a target of planting 1 crore 30 lakh saplings this year and this goal can be accomplished only with large scale participation of the responsible citizens” the Lt Governor observed.
Later, the Lt Governor honored the teams who adopted parks under the “Adopt-A-Park” initiative. He appreciated the efforts of various citizen groups, Resident Welfare Associations for their active participation in this campaign.
A documentary video on various herbal plants to be planted in the parks being adopted under the campaign was also showcased.
Purnima Sharma, Deputy Mayor JMC in her welcome address highlighted the benefits of transforming parks into herbal gardens with facilities like book stalls and Kiosks of refreshments for citizens.
Dheeraj Gupta, Principal Secretary to the Government, H&UDD; Dr Raghav Langer, Divisional commissioner Jammu; Avny Lavasa, Commissioner JMC; JMC Corporators, members of Civil Society and citizens were present on the occasion.