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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Centre to spend 65% of rural fund to tackle drought, water shortage -Saubhadra Chatterji

Centre to spend 65% of rural fund to tackle drought, water shortage -Saubhadra Chatterji

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published Published on May 18, 2016   modified Modified on May 18, 2016
-Hindustan Times

The NDA government has set an ambitious target of spending 65% of its annual rural development budget by June to tackle drought and unprecedented shortage of water across the country.

* Why the high expenditure?

As large parts of the country reel under acute water shortage, the government will spend almost 65% of its annual budget by next month to mitigate the crisis.

* What does this mean?

The firm focus of the rural job guarantee programme is on water conservation. The Centre will spend the lion’s share of the fund on building farm ponds, check dams, etc.

* What next?

With the infrastructure to harvest rain water being put in place, all eyes will be on the monsoon. Also, other rural schemes like housing and roads may take a back seat temporarily.

* Plans for creating ponds

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been meeting chief ministers to take stock of the drought situation across the country, the union rural ministry is working to create 10 lakh farm ponds this year — the essential infrastructure to hold rain water in rural habitats.

“We have an annual budget of Rs 38,500 crore. Out of it, we have already released Rs 19,340 crore. By June we will distribute additional Rs 11,000 crore under MGNREGA. This money is primarily targeted to tackle drought,” said a senior official of the rural ministry.

In his meetings with the chief ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also been emphasising a creation of check dams, farm ponds and other water bodies to hold back rain water for rural habitats.

Andhra Pradesh has set a requirement of six lakh farm ponds while Jharkhand wants to build 1.5 lakh water bodies. In Jharkhand, the target is to have at least 15 farm ponds in every revenue village.

The cost of building a farm pond varies from state to state depending upon the nature of the soil. An arid area would mean a MGNREGA budget of Rs 1.5 lakh to build a deep pond. In rain-fed areas, the cost comes down to about Rs 50,000-60,000.

As the employment guarantee plan is likely to exhaust the lion’s share of this year’s annual rural budget, the ministry will seek more allocations from the government for its other schemes like the rural roads, livelihood mission and rural housing in the coming months.

India’s per capita availability of water is below the global threshold, signaling the urgent need to address conservation for a growing population and an expanding economy.

Hindustan Times, 18 May, 2016, http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/centre-to-spend-65-of-rural-fund-to-tackle-drought-water-shortage/story-NO7f5BlyqWANZoPvWk1E6N.html


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