Pune: Pitching for wider participation of people to increase green cover in cities, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday held his first "janta darbar" where he listened to concerns about depleting forests and suggestions to check the trends on the issue.
Javadekar met morning walkers at the `Vetal tekadi` hill and interacted with a group of environment-conscious citizens discussing issues of bio-diversity protection, plantation and erosion of green covers.
The citizens also spoke to the minister about issues relating to an increased construction activity in and around Pune and its depleting forest cover.
On the occasion, the Minister also launched a mobile application "SarpMitra" which will help sensitising people about snakes and also provide help in case of snake rescues.
"Met wt Pune Morning walkers in a first of its kind Janata Darbar/ Tekdi Darbar, listened to peoples` suggestions.
"1000s (SIC) of people were present today morning at Tekdi (hill) Darbar, gave their suggestions to increase forest cover," Javadekar tweeted.
He said that the government`s approach was to increase the participation of people to make the cities greener.
"Our Government`s approach is to ensure wider participation of people in making cities greener," he said in the micro-blogging website.
He added, "Launched Mobile #App "SarpMitra" in d morning; App ll sensitize ppl abt SNAKE WORLD & provide help in Snake Rescue."
The Union minister patiently listened to the suggestions during the meeting which went on for over half an hour and assured the people that the government will look into them, Ministry officials said, adding the minister is looking forward to holding more such interactions in future.
