The Maharashtra government has spent around Rs 1,400 crore on its flagship water conservation programme 'Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyaan' and completed work in 2,939 villages since its launch in March this year, a state CMO official said. The government's integrated water management scheme aims to make the state drought-free by 2019 and rid 5,000 villages of water scarcity every year.
According to the official from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), the government is putting substantial focus on the rejuvenation of old structures and the policy has now shifted from constructing big dams to smaller de-centralised water structures.
"Fourteen different schemes for water conservation have been clubbed together and measures are being implemented as per the requirement of a particular village. We have started work in 6,180 villages in the first phase, out of which 1,20,485 works have already been completed," the official said.
"In 2,939 villages, 4,244 works, worth approximately Rs 300 crore, were done through people's participation. The state government has spent almost Rs 1,400 crore on the project till date," he said.
The official further apprised that after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's appeal to donate money for the scheme, more than Rs 60 crore has been deposited with the Chief Minister's Relief Fund.
"Major contributors include Mantralaya and CMO employees, Sachkhand Gurudwara, that donated Rs 15 lakh, (and) various Ganesh mandals in Mumbai contributed a total of around Rs 30 lakh. Apart from this, contribution of Rs 34 lakh has poured in from the Shirdi Saibaba Trust and Siddhivinayak Trust, too, has donated Rs 34 lakh. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has donated Rs one crore for the project," the official said.
"The Chief Minister has personally visited sites in more than 17 districts till date and approximately 2,459 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) water storage capacity has been created through the completed works." he added.
