The government’s recent decision to put the integrated watershed management projects on hold during the 2016-2017 fiscal owing to fund crunch is likely to hit a number of agrarian families who have been depending on various livelihood development programmes under the projects with bountiful subsidies.
Consequently, grama panchayats that have been receiving funds for promoting projects such as poultry farming, goat rearing, small-scale irrigation facilities, composting, and biogas plants, will now have to explore alternative sources of income to support such projects in future. Meanwhile, some local bodies are already in the process of crediting back the previously allotted funds to the government exchequer.
A member of Kattippara panchayat said the government’s plan to shelve the scheme would impact three major watershed projects — Kolikkalthodu, Chamalthodu, and Kattipparathodu — in the panchayat, besides making the authorities withhold around Rs.1 crore which was to be disbursed either as subsidy or project implementation cost during the 2016-17 fiscal. “The local panchayats in the Western Ghats area have already been directed to credit back the amount,” he added.
