The government has decided to plant 200 crore trees along the entire 1 lakh km National Highways network across the country to provide employment to jobless youth. Speaking at a function in New Delhi today, Road Transport, Highways, Shipping and Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari said the scheme will create jobs for the unemployed on the one hand and protect the environment on the other. He added a similar scheme could be implemented under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act , MNREGA along the village and district roads and state highways which has the potential to employ 30 lakh youth.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.Mr Gadkari said the Government will lay stress on building check-dams instead of mega projects. 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 Highways in calamity-torn Kedarnath region, which faced flash floods last year that killed and displaced thousands of people.