employment of rural population in various other vocations created due to developmental activities in other spheres.

It will be relevant to mention that the large-scale deaths of children in Melghat mentioned above have reduced dramatically due to the completion of a crash programme of construction of approach roads to the 91 villages in that area which previously had no approach roads. The appreciation expressed by H.E., the Governor of Maharashtra in a letter to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra is enclosed in Annexure-6.

The Committee,therefore, feels encouraged to recommend that the Government should take up on priority the task of providing good all weather roads to each and every village in the country in a time bound programme. In view of the difficulty of subsequent maintenance of such roads, the specification of the roads should be such as to require little or no maintenance for ten years after construction. As expressed by Shri Sundarlalji Patwa, Hon’ble Minister for Rural Development in the first meeting of the Committee, basically this programme should be a road construction programme though large scale direct and indirect employment will be created as its fall out.

Vriksha Rojgar Yojana would be formulated to plant the trees on both sides of the road. For this, local youth would be engaged and they will be provided proper tools and small cycle / rickshaw mounted water tankers. One youth would be given the responsibility of 4 km of road length. In every kilometer of road, 500 trees would be planted on each side. After 1 year, the tree density will be reduced and only 250 trees will be maintained on each side of the road. The type of trees to be planted would be decided by local conditions. The final cutting of trees would be done only after their full growth. The revenue generated by felling of trees will be distributed equally between the local Gram Panchayat and the youth who has been given the responsibility of that particular stretch. A brief outline of the scheme is given below:

• The item for plantation of trees by the roadside will be a part of the estimate and contract for road work.
• The trees will be panted along the edge of the road land, away from the carriageway. Low cost tree guards will be installed to protect the trees.
• Advice of officers of Forest Department / Social Forestry Department will be taken. Young plants / saplings should be made