The Hindu: Mumbai: Thursday, May 18, 2017.
Despite the
government’s tall prediction in 2016 of building over five lakh farm ponds in
the next five years, information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI)
Act revealed that the State in the financial year 2016-17 has built only 5,210
ponds, raising questions over the implementation of the scheme.
Activist
Tanmay Kanitkar has sought information from the Centre on the actual
water-related works completed in the country in 2016-17. “Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley in 2016 had said that the country will have 10 lakh farm ponds by March
31, 2017. I wanted to know what had happened on ground and hence I filed an
application under RTI,” said Mr. Kanitkar, president, Parivartan, an NGO in
Pune.
Data shows
that even the Centre has not achieved its target and has built only 5,78,589
farm ponds. Andhra Pradesh has built 3,11,361 ponds, which is the highest by
any State.
Chief
Minister Devendra Fadnavis in April 2016 had set the target of building five
lakh farm ponds in five years under ‘magel tyala shet tale’ (farm pond on
demand). The ponds are being set up to create captive source of water for the
farmer in his own farm, which is also likely to help increase the groundwater.
The government provides a subsidy of ₹50,000 to dig the pond.
The State has
fallen short in achieving its target of building one lakh farm ponds every
year. Interestingly, Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao in his address to the State
legislature on the budget session had said that the State has built over 9,000
ponds.
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