200 cr trees to be planted along highways: Gadkari
The Hindu
Road Transport and Highways Shipping Minister, Nitin Gadkari at a
discussion on river rejuvenation in New Delhi on Friday. Photo: Meeta
Ahlawat
The government plans to plant 200 crore trees along the
entire 1 lakh km National Highways network across the country to employ
jobless youth.
“The length of National Highways in
the country is one lakh kilometre. I have asked officials to come out
with a plan to plant 200 crore trees along these stretches which in turn
would create jobs for the unemployed on the one hand and protect the
environment on the other,” Road Transport, Highways, Shipping and Rural
Development Minister Nitin Jairam Gadkari said in New Delhi on Friday.
A
similar scheme could be implemented under MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Gurantee Act) along the village and district
roads and state highways. That has the potential to employ 30 lakh
youth, he said while inaugurating a conference on “Regeneration of
Rivers”.
Mr. Gadkari said Gram Panchayats will be
taken into confidence and the unemployed youth could be assigned 50
trees each which could fetch livelihood for them from the produce.
He
also stressed upon the need for water conservation stating that if even
15 per cent of rainwater could be tapped out of the 60 per cent that
goes to the sea, the water-scarcity could be avoided and people can be
supplied with potable water besides irrigation of agriculture land.
The
government will lay stress on building check-dams instead of mega
projects, he said, adding that the biggest impediment in way of water
schemes is lack of electricity and steps were on to improve the power
situation by fixing accountability and regular auditing.
He said measures were also on to save Rs. 6 lakh crore on imports of petrol, diesel and gas by way of promoting bio-fuels.
He
added that his departments in coordination with others are preparing
roadmaps for cleanliness of Ganga and Yamuna rivers and developing
waterways in the country for environment-friendly and quick movement of
cargo and passenger traffic.
Mr. Gadkari also said that the project monitoring committee was looking into realignment of National Highwayscomment
politicians promise the moon ,never comes true
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