New Delhi: India is in the grip of a drought for the second year running. On an average, 9 farmers committed suicide daily in Maharashtra alone last year.
A fight against drought of course needs adequate supply of drinking water and foodgrain but it also requires the government to augment existing Central initiatives and launch new schemes for affected states. Is the government doing enough to help drought affected regions?
Last week, a Supreme Court bench asked the Centre to list measures taken under the national food security law and the rural employment guarantee scheme that are meant to benefit drought-hit areas.
The Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Generation Scheme (MNREGA) offers guaranteed jobs in the hinterland. Though spending under MNREGA in 2015-16 was the highest ever at Rs 41,617 crore and Rs 38,500 crore have been allocated in the Union Budget for the current fiscal, implementation of the scheme remains patchy.
Only 9% of the total households under MNREGA even completed 100 days of employment last fiscal. Wage arrears for last fiscal have only now been released by the Centre, after SC prodding, and about 52 lakh works under MNREGA remained incomplete as of March 31 this year.
Officials say the government has approved digging of 8.77 lakh total ponds under MNREGA this fiscal of which a “majority” will be in drought affected areas and with wage-material ratio of 80:20. Each pond should envisage investment of Rs 1.6 lakh. But even where allocation is being made to create water reservoirs which assuage water shortage and also provide employment, faulty implementation is making matters worse.
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