Report on greening rural development in India released

"Our forests, our water resources, and all our other natural resources are part of the common goods, the heritage and inestimable wealth of nation, the use of which is a trust and a covenant, which must be respected, so that our national resources are used in a manner that preserves their integrity and passes on the ecological security to future generations of Indians," she said.

She was talking to reporters after releasing a report-- "Greening Rural Development in India", prepared by Rural Development Ministry with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Lauding the Rural Development Ministry for its move to use schemes like MGNREGA as a vehicle to promote green agenda and open a dedicated green cell to enable it to guide environmental friendly objectives through various schemes, Natarjan said other ministries, particularly dealing with infrastructure, should adequately incorporate such suggestions in their agenda.

The report was released jointly by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Ahluwalia, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and Natarajan.

Ahluwalia said the very large part of the sustainability issue should logically be sorted out and acted upon by the country itself.

Citing negative effects in the present system of farming and other related activities in rural areas, he said there are different ways like pricing and regulation to deal with such problems.

He said that in current farming system huge amount of water is being extracted using free electricity for a small piece of land and it is in a way amounted to denying other farmers who do not have water for survival of their crops.

"When you just have a water regulatory authority...(that) will simply make sure that you don't have the situation where the most water is used in a small portion of land," Ahluwalia said.