For the poor, tribal and other vulnerable households in Maharashtra, a mega project—being executed by the Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)—was launched in six districts.
Five of the districts where the project was flagged off—Amravati, Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Gondian and Yavatmal—was in Vidarbha region, and the sixth one, Nandurbar, is in north Maharashtra.
The objective of the project was to improve the economic lives of farmers, especially the tribal and other vulnerable ones. It is expected to double the income of at least 1 lakh small and marginal households on a sustainable basis.
The project would be implemented in 28 select blocks of the six chosen districts, through appropriate land and water treatment measures, which will be undertaken by leveraging funds from MGNREGS. The high impact mega watershed project would integrate the effective implementation of MGNREGS in watershed mode with an assumption of “Create assets today, bring prosperity tomorrow”.
A formal MoU was signed between Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation and MGNREGS’s Commissioner Office.
The project would include proper net planning (hydrological and ridge to valley approach through applying GIS mapping), active participation of the community from inception to implementation, capacity building of Gram Panchayats the main Programme Implementing Agencies (PIA) under MGNREGS and project implementation in the most deprived and resource-poor geographies of the state.
“On an average, every year Rs 7.14 crore are available for development work for each taluk under the MGNREGS in the last two years. A similar amount can be made available if proper planning of work under MGNREGS is taken and executed accordingly,” said Shantanu Goel, commissioner of MGNREGS.
Under this project, community irrigation and water conservation structures like Mazi Malgujari Talav, percolation tanks, storage tanks, and check dam will be taken up for restoration, as well as individual irrigation assets like wells and farm ponds will also be created.
“The project will enhance social capital through community collectives, progressive farmers, and agro-entrepreneurs. It will empower Gram Sabhas/Panchayati Raj Institutions while improving the democratic processes of these institutions to drive the village development processes and facilitate better access to the MGNREGS Scheme. The project will drive the effective implementation of MGNREGS through the active participation of the community in the planning and execution of works,” said Pramathesh Ambasta, chief executive officer of BRLF.