Asking what happened to the trees planted for the last two years under Harithaharam, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) vice-president Mallu Ravi opined that there had been no protection for the saplings planted during the last two years, which resulted in much of the effort getting wasted.
There was no protection to even the trees planted by the Chief Minister, ministers, VIPs, MLAs and higher officials, he alleged.
Ravi claimed that the government was using the Harithaharam program only as a publicity stunt, spending crores of rupees on it without aiming to realize any real benefits from it.
Recalling late Sanjay Gandhi's initiative for planting trees in the nation, Ravi said that nobody would oppose the planting of trees, but that the government needed to take up the program sincerely instead of just posing to the media.