V. Manjula, Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Additional Chief Secretary, has told officials to take up social forestry works under MGNREGA schemes to increase the green coverage in the district.
Chairing a progress review meeting here on recently, Ms. Manjula, who is also the district in-charge secretary, said that there is more scope to take up social forestry under MGNREGA.
As per reports, Dharwad is 26th in the State in progress of social forestry.
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The department has to motivate farmers to grow trees along the edge of their fields and increase the green cover. As the district is receiving good rains, the officials should strive to implement the social forestry effectively and see that the district comes among the top five districts in enhancing the green coverage by August-end, she said.
At the meeting, officials of Panchayat the Raj and Engineering Department said the department has taken up construction of check-dams for rainwater conservation.
This year, action plan for building 271 check-dams has been prepared under the ‘Jalamruta scheme’.
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The construction of 63 checks-dams is in progress. Following heavy rains in rural parts, construction work has been delayed. An action plan of ₹14.81 crore has been submitted for removing silt from 198 tanks, including the Neersagar. The officials also informed that this year 9,000 ponds have been constructed in the district.
However, owing to the delay in releasing grants for the scheme, the beneficiaries are yet to get ₹14.5 crore.
The department had submitted a proposal seeking ₹18 crore as payment for those who built ponds and the government has released ₹ 2 crore, they said.
Ms. Manjula expressed dissatisfaction over the payment of wages to job cardholders under MGNREGA and said there should not be any delay in it.
All departments have to uniformly follow weekly payment. The officials stated that some departments are making payment once in a month while others have been regularly making payments.