The Centre plans to plant 200 crore trees along the entire 1 lakh-km national highways network across the country to employ jobless youth.
“The Road Ministry is preparing a project 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 Gadkari said here on Friday.
He further said that a similar scheme could be implemented under the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) along village and district roads and state highways. It has the potential to employ 30 lakh youth, he said, while inaugurating a conference on “Regeneration of Rivers”.
The minister said he would discuss with states on involving gram panchayats in the project as the government plans to engage every unemployed youth to plant 50 trees, which could fetch him a livelihood from the produce.
Published 13 June 2014, 19:52 IST