Plant a tree on your premises and get 5 units of electricity free: Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren

RANCHI: Urban households and commercial spaces in Jharkhand will get five units of free electricity for each tree that is planted within their premises, CM Hemant Soren announced on Friday afternoon.
"For each tree you plant, you will get five units of free electricity free. However, this will not be applicable to households and commercial spaces that plant flowering trees. It will be applicable only if they plant trees which will provide a canopy when they mature," Soren announced at the 73rd Van Mahotsav celebrations which were held in the IIM, Ranchi's newly-built campus in Pundag area.
While Soren announced free electricity units, government officials said modalities of the scheme will be worked out later on. "The CM's announcement is a part of the government's desperate efforts to increase urban green cover in Jharkhand's towns and cities," a senior official requesting anonymity said.
Soren said he was getting increasingly worried by the depleting water levels in reservoirs in and around Ranchi which supply water to homes. "They blocked Harmu river's catchment area by erecting concrete structures and as a result, the river turned into a nullah. Urbanization is the greatest threat to environment and a balance needs to be struck at the earliest," Soren rued.
Soren also claimed that the Union government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi was drafting new sets of laws which would clear the decks for rampant deforestation in the name of development. "We are hearing murmurs about it. We will speak to the Centre and know what its plans are. If such laws are passed, states like Jharkhand will be decimated," he added.
The state government said it has planned to plant 2.34 lakh trees in Jharkhand in the next one year to increase Jharkhand's gross forest cover.