Cong questions success of Jalyukt Shivar scheme in Maharashtra

Despite the BJP-led Maharashtra government's vaunted Jalyukt Shivar Yojana, a water conservation scheme, groundwater levels have fallen alarmingly in the state, the Congress said Saturday.

A government survey reveals that groundwater levels have fallen by more than one metre in around 14,000 villages, Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said here.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the state government's Jalyukt Shivar Yojana Friday, saying that it helped 16,000 villages to become drought-free and works under the scheme were underway in another 9,000 villages, Sawant noted.

"The government has claimed to have spent Rs 7,500 crore on Jalyukt Shivar works. Where has the money gone? The government must disclose the names of 25,000 villages which it claims are drought-free," the Congress leader said.

While the government claimed that number of tankers supplying drinking water has decreased by 80 per cent, tankers are still supplying water in several places, he claimed.

A report published last month by the Groundwater Survey And Development Authority said that groundwater levels have depleted by more than one meter in 13,984 villages in 252 out of the 353 tehsils in the state, Sawant said.

Of these 13,984 villages, groundwater levels have gone down by more than three metres in 3,342 villages, he added.

"This shows that the Jalyukt Shivar scheme is beset by corruption," the Congress leader alleged.