'File cases against tree guard thieves'

HYDERABAD: The Harita Haram programme continues to be dogged by theft of tree guards. The issue came up at a meeting chaired by chief secretary SP Singh here on Tuesday. During a video conference reviewing the progress of Harita Haram, Singh instructed the home department to file cases against

tree guard thieves

and 'throw them into prison'.

Singh instructed principal secretary of home department Rajiv Trivedi to instruct the police department to accept complaints about

tree guard

thefts and file cases and investigate into them. "Once you start taking action on such people, these thefts will not be repeated," the chief secretary is learnt to have said at the meeting. A source said that the instruction will hopefully force cops at station levels to begin registering cases and issue First Information Reports. Once an FIR is issued, a case has to be concluded, the source said.

In the meanwhile, sources said that a case pertaining to theft of 30 tree guards in

Bhongir

area of

Nalgonda

last month was a result of rivalry between local politicians. "We have no idea why people are taking out their political differences over saplings and tree guards," an official said.

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