Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on Friday took a round of a worst affected taluka of Suigam in Banaskantha district in north Gujarat to take stock of the on-going drought relief works in region and problems faced by the relief workers. Patel visited a check dam deepening works site at Koreti under MNREGA and enquired about the wages to the labourers and pending problems faced by them. The work is to create additional irrigation capacity in the area. She directed the officers to provide adequate drinking water, fodder and jobs to hands, if necessary by deploying more tankers. The 58 worst affected villages are provided fodder from 17 depots. The district provided 16-lakh man-days works totaling Rs 40-crore under MNREGA in Banaskantha district last year.The Chief Minister said that extra care has to be taken in 1,234 villages in the State.
In response to the farmers’ needs and leaders’ submissions, Patel said that water will be released in the canal network in north Gujarat from Saturday. She said the Government has taken other steps like deepening ponds, building check dams, watering down the problem of fluoride content in north Gujarat region by the Sujalam Sufalam lift irrigation-cum-canal programme.
The Chief Minister said that according the industry status to agriculture and opening perishable cargo depot opened at Ahmedabad airport helping Gujarat farmers market their produces across the world. She asked the farmers to shift to the global trend of organic farming, which fetch higher prices.
She listed increasing the compensation for accidental deaths from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 4lakh, loans up Rs 3 lakhs at one per cent interest.