Experiment failed, yet Muktsar admn transplants date palms

Costly exercise

• Sources say the transplantation of date palm trees is a costly exercise
• The trees have to be transported from faraway nurseries
• The date palms also need a lot of care as compared to others

Date palm trees on Malout Road in Muktsar. Tribune photo

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, September 5

Even though many of the date palm trees transplanted here have died, the Muktsar Municipal Council continues to transplant these ornamental trees. In the past, the same experiment was carried out at Badal village and outside the district police lines in Bathinda, but it proved to be a failure. Most date palms had to be uprooted within a short period.

Sources said the transplantation of date palm trees was a costly exercise. “The trees have to be transported from faraway nurseries. These trees also need a lot of care as compared to others,” said sources in the Forest Department. The date palms trees have so far been transplanted on Malout Road, outside the residential complex of the district, session judge and the deputy commissioner. Further, the municipal council has planned to transplant more date palms on all entry points of the town.

Harpal Singh Bedi, president, Muktsar Municipal Council, said, “As of now, 21 date palms have been transplanted in the town. We will transplant more such trees after getting the public’s response.” Bedi claimed he had spent money from his own pocket for the transplantation of the trees. Sources claimed the MC had even hired three gardeners for the maintenance of the trees.

Some local residents said the authorities should attend to the sewage flowing on the streets and heaps of garbage strewn around, instead of spending on the transplantation of ornamental trees.

Courtesy: The Tribune