The 15th Finance Commission meeting was held this week, chaired by the Mayor of Lucknow and attended by the District Magistrate and Municipal Commissioner. In this meeting, around ₹75 crores have been allocated to projects that aim at increasing the green cover of Lucknow by developing 900 parks, improving its air quality with smog-guns and bettering the traffic system. 5 new towing machines, among other things, will be provided for it. The decisions taken by the state officials during the meeting, are detailed below.
Planting trees to make the city greener
A total of ₹25 crores have been allocated to fund the development of 900 parks across Lucknow, which includes strengthening the green cover of underdeveloped and semi-developed parks. The Mayor stated that this decision has been made to mitigate the pollution crisis that the city faces.
In total, 1 lakh plants will be planted this season with 50,000 in the city forest, which will be constructed in Vasant Kunj Yojna by Lucknow Development Authority. Out of the remaining, 25,000 saplings will be planted in small parks around the city and the other 25,000 in the big parks of Lucknow.
Further, keeping this agenda in mind, only those plants will be planted in parks that have a high oxygen output, so that these public spaces can become a hub of natural oxygen. It has also been suggested that more trees will be added to the cremation areas and electric crematoriums will be encouraged to reduce wood consumption during the rituals. For this, ₹5 crores have been earmarked.
Helping the city fight air pollution
To reduce the pollution emanating from industrial areas, major markets and on-road vehicles, a green buffer zone shall be created on the roadsides, for which ₹15 crores have been given. Apart from setting up of plenty of trees, an air quality station will be built to improve the air quality index and ₹20 crores have been sanctioned for it. Permission has been granted to purchase 10 state-of-the-art anti-smog guns to clear the dust particles rising in the air.
A bid to make the streets cleaner
To make the small roads, streets and high traffic areas cleaner, they will be swept mechanically with a vacuum litter vehicle. A charging station will also be built in each zone so that it is easy to charge the machines, if they run out of power, when on duty. This step shall increase the efficiency and productivity of manual cleaners.
Preventing pollution from construction work
Finances will be invested in purchasing 50 moving view cutters, to prevent construction sites from causing pollution and a plant will be set up to deal with the same. Moreover, debris depots will be built for collection in every zone and the waste so collected, will be upcycled into tiles.
