With the Met office predicting good monsoons this year, the Akhilesh Yadav government has directed district magistrates of seven districts of Bundelkhand to dig ponds in every village under MNREGA so that every drop of rain water could be saved.
A government official told 'The Pioneer' that Revenue department has been asked to co-ordinate with the districts to ensure digging of ponds.
"There are plans to dig over 2000 ponds in the next one month in the Bundelkhand region," the official said.
Panchayat officials would be the nodal officers and work in tandem with Rural Development department to ensure digging of ponds in every village.
The Gram Sabha will provide land for digging ponds and in case any one does not have land, villagers would be asked to volunteer to donate a piece of land to dig ponds.
"The new directives have nothing to do with Farm Pond Scheme launched by the state government recently in collaboration with Union government. Funds for the scheme would be given through Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY)," the official said.
Officials said that the UP government has plans to replicate Mehboob Nagar model of Andhra Pradesh under which ground water was re-charged by preserving rain water.
"MNREGA money would be used to dig ponds. The CM has declared that farmers in Bundelkhand would be given 150 days of work instead of 100 days. If we can achieve the target of digging 2000 ponds there would be enough water after rains," he said.
"These new ponds will help in arresting the damage done to the eco-system of the region," hoped the official
The government decision came after the Revenue department submitted a report to the government saying that over 4250 ponds have vanished in Bundelkhand in the last one decade.