1,500 million hectare wasteland made cultivable: Govt
Government today claimed that 1,500 million hectare wasteland has been made cultivable in the last decade under the Integrated Wasteland Development Programme (IWDP).
Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh informed the Lok Sabha during Question Hour that the IWDP also involved development of drought prone and watershed areas. 68 per cent of the work under MNREGA has been dedicated to this field.
"The IWDP is an area development programme under which projects were sanctioned on watershed basis since 1995-96 till 2006-07. The programme being demand driven, no state-wise targets were fixed," Ramesh said.
According to the data provided by the government, Assam was given the maximum funds under IWDP in 2011-12 of Rs 4.05 crore, followed by Himachal Pradesh with Rs 3.83 crore and Uttarakhand with Rs 2.33 crore.
Maximum development of wasteland in 2010-11 took place in Andhra Pradesh where 7.24 lakh hectare have been made cultivable, followed by Bihar with 0.88 lakh hectare and Maharashtra with 0.60 lakh hectare.
IWDP has also generated impressive mandays of work. Meghalaya leads with 112.45 lakh mandays, Maharashtra 42.57 lakh mandays and Andhra Pradesh 22.54 lakh mandays.
Ramesh denied the allegation made by Sanjay Nirupam (Cong) that the IWDP is not achieving much and not meeting targets of development.
