Orissa missed chances to lessen impact of drought ?

The Hindu,Bhubaneswar,27th August:

Even as Orissa is staring at possible drought in some districts due to uneven distribution of rain, it appears to have missed a chance to overcome this critical situation.According to latest progress report on implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Orissa, the State performed miserably in creating assets such as drought proofing, micro irrigation works, water conservation and water harvesting, renovation of traditional water bodies and land development.

Only 1.22 per cent of total works taken up for creation of these kinds of physical assets have been completed. Only Mizoram and Karnataka are the other States which have dismal records in the area.During 2009-10 Orissa undertook 6,990 drought proofing works of which only 18 have been completed. Gajapati district is leading the table where 12 drought proof works were done. However, those districts that received scanty rainfall (up to 90 per cent of shortfall in the month of August) had very little or no drought proofing work.

Similarly, renovation of traditional water bodies, which is said to be an important step in making farmers independent in irrigation, have not been done up to satisfactory level. Out of 43,528 renovation works, only 623 have been completed under NREGS.

While Ganjam, Sundargarh and Jajpur district have more than 100 each of water bodies renovated, such work has not been initiated in other drought prone districts like Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Malkanagiri and Sonepur.“NREGS was precisely meant for creating physical assets for dealing with calamities like drought. However, during implementation this aspect was not given due attention.

Had they created such assets, the State government would have been in much comfortable position to deal with possible drought,” said Richard Mahapatra, a New Delhi-based researcher.In 2009-10, about Rs. 491 crore was made available under NREGS to Orissa. But, the State could spend only Rs 111.76 crore, which was only 22.76 per cent.