Maharashtra govt plans EGS jobs in drought hit areas

While chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has asked the guardian ministers to review the drought situation, the state government has decided to give various works under the employment guarantee scheme during drought months.

The payments will be made for the days for the labour on its own if it crosses the stipulated 150 man days.

Currently, there 2.74 lakh people have been provided with employment under the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS). The state can take up 40,000 type of works during the drought months. The state has got permission from Centre to provide 150 day employment under EGS.

The drought situation is severe, with all dams having only 19.63% water as compared to 32.60% in 2018. PWD minister Chandrakant Patil along with ministers Diwakar Raote, Girish Mahajan, Ram Shinde and Mahadev Jankar briefed media persons about the cabinet meeting discussions.

Patil said that since model code of conduct is on, the ministers would be visiting the districts as elected representatives and give a memorandum to district collectors. He said that before code of conduct came into effect on March 9, there were 1,264 fodder camps where 7 lakh cattle were kept.

The government has increased money per cattle from Rs 70 to Rs 90 per animal for big cattle and from Rs 45 to Rs 65 for small cattle. "Centre has already given Rs 4600 crore relief, Rs 2700 crore has already been given to beneficiaries. Another Rs 3200 crore has been paid towards crop insurance," he said.

Patil said construction activity has been banned in drought prone areas only, not in cities. The water stock at various dams as on April 27 was as follows: Amravati division 24.08 % (21.12 in 2018), Aurangabad division 5.27 % (30.46 % in 2018), Konkan division 40.7% (49.5 % in 2018), Nagpur division 10.9% (17.18% in 2018), Nashik division 18.36% (34.26% in 2018) and Pune division 23.66 % (36.92% in 2018). Marathwada revenue division is facing acute water shortage and only 5.27% water is remaining in all the dams and irrigation projects.

This week there has been sudden rise in temperature in various parts of the state which has forced the administration to deploy additional 180 tankers this week in entire state.

Maha Dry Spell

• 3,699 villages and 8,417 hamlets are being provided drinking water by tankers
• Construction activity has been banned only in drought prone areas
• Due to rise in temperature, additional 180 tankers deployed this week in state
• Tankers deployed across various divisions in the state: Konkan (86), Nashik (1149), Pune (757), Aurangabad (2,534), Amravati (218), Nagpur (30)