Maha government plans to restructure water conservation dept

The Maharashtra government is planning to restructure the water conservation department to effectively monitor and control implementation of its flagship programme -- Jalyukt Shivar Yojana.
"Restructuring of the department will be done on the lines of the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) to monitor and effectively implement the Jalyukt Shivar scheme," water conservation minister Ram Shinde informed the legislative assembly in reply to a debate on the yojana.
Shinde said till July last year 24 TMC storage capacity had been created while till the end of December 2016 42 TMC water storage capacity has been created.
Leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil demanded an audit into the donations made under the head of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the scheme.

He alleged that the works under this scheme are violating environment rules as well.
"From people's involvement (in the scheme) it is now turning to benefit contractors," alleged Vikhe-Patil.
Replying to Vikhe-Patil's demand for audit, Shinde said there is a provision for the same. "Even the CSR donations are audited by the company which makes it," he said.
The budgeted allocation for the scheme in 2016-17 was Rs 7871 crore. However, 1,265 works could not be started due to the poll code, informed Shinde.