Govt to complete 10 lakh projects related to water conservation under MGNREGA in its first 100 days

The Centre has set a target of completing one million projects linked to water conservation under rural employment scheme MGNREGA in the first 100 days of the government, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Over the past five years, MGNREGA has become the main force that is driving water conservation efforts across rural India.

The scheme has now evolved from being merely a mitigator of rural distress into focused campaign to raise rural incomes through natural resource management (NRM) work.

Approximately 60 per cent of the resources under MGNREGA are spent on NRM work which focuses on ensuring higher incomes to farmers by improving both the area under cultivation and yield of crops. This is done by improving the productivity of land and increasing water availability.

"We have set a target of completing one million natural resource management (NRM) projects mainly linked to water conservation in first 100 days of this new government," Secretary in the Department of Rural Development ..