Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday came down heavily on Narendra Modi’s Gujarat Government for not spending funds provided by the Centre for implementing an ambitious programme to conserve water in drought-hit areas of Gujarat.
In a letter to Modi, Ramesh said that under the Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP), the Centre has, so far, released `702 crore and the unspent balance available with the State was about `409 crore.
“In Gujarat, the cost of sanctioned projects between 2009-10 to 2013-14 is `3,178 crore....Had Gujarat implemented its IWMP projects as it had committed to, it could have got another `407 crore more from the Centre over the last four years,” he said.
Seeking to puncture the BJP prime ministerial candidate’s Gujarat Development Model claim, the Minister sought Modi’s “personal intervention in setting the structure right” in the State for the implementation of IWMP.
Ramesh’s letter to Modi has come two days after the BJP leader blamed the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre for lack of development in mineral-rich Jharkhand where he chairs the Coordination Committee for Congress-JMM-RJD alliance Government.
Gujarat is the “most important state” for the implementation of the programme, Ramesh said about IWMP launched in 2009-10 with the objective of restoring the ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and developing degraded natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover and water.
The Minister noted that barring Karnataka, the pace of implementation of IWMP in almost every state leaves much to be desired.
According to officials, the focus of the IWMP is on improving soil and water conservation in the area with the poorest soil and water regimes. It is primarily inhabitants in these areas that require support for securing additional employment as the agricultural operations are not adequate to meet the livelihood needs, they said.
This is the reason why the Ministry has decided convergence between MGNREGA with IWMP as around 70 per cent of works taken up in the rural job scheme relate to soil and water conservation.