A number of expensive date palms planted by the Punjab government only last year at the busy thoroughfare between the shrine of Hazrat Data Gunj Buksh and Minar-e-Pakistan were uprooted last week and left to rot on the wayside. With the scorching sun beating down on them, around five score palms which should have been swiftly replanted elsewhere were dying owing to PHA’s mismanagement, Pakistan Today learnt on Tuesday.
The date palms were uprooted to create space for the under construction Rapid Mass Transect Bus Services.
Still lying on the road in the heat the uprooted trees were not a pretty sight at all, and many conscientious citizens were seen condemning the apathy of Punjab government and PHA officials on not ensuring that these were replanted.
According to information gathered from PHA, the price tag for a single date palm is in the vicinity of Rs60,000.
Javaid Shaida, PHA’s public relations officer, said that the date palms shall be replanted in Shahdra, but avoiding comment on why they were dug up and left on the roadside to rot.
However another official seeking anonymity said that this issue was in the know of PHA, but since most PHA officials were recruited on political grounds, they did not bother to attend to such chores.
A student at GCU who lives close by while talking to this scribe said, the Punjab government had spent millions on making green belts and planting these trees. “The CM should this action against this wanton neglect”, said he.
Another female office worker pointed out that planting date palms and other imported exotic species was such a huge waste. “These ornamental trees cost a pretty packet which in a province where most people are without clean off-the-tap drinking water is definitely a waste of precious resources”, said she.
Questioning the logic behind this, she said, why spend Rs60,000/- on a date palm which is neither in consonance with the conditions or culture nor provide shade or fruit, when 30,000 Pipal, Sheesham, Neem or Jamun trees could be planted at the same expense?
It would be stating the obvious, but there is no gain in it for the PHA officials and the political string pullers who stand to profit from this.
There is no denying that the PHA has done some superb work in landscaping Lahore, turning our roads into beautifully laid linear parks that are a visual delight. It is about time that it sheds its policy of investing overwhelming in ornamental trees and plants in favour of the local varieties which have been part of our culture for centuries. This is advisable both in terms of fiscal saving and at the same improving our environment.
