Shimla, Mar 7
Horticulture Minister Mahinder Singh Thakur said that farmers who are covered under the non-cluster apple orchard under Horticulture mission project could not be covered linked to water harvesting under the world bank project, he was replying to a query raised by the Rakesh Singha in the question hours today.
Minister said that World bank guidelines did not permit the water harvesting in the non cluster areas and it could be reviewed as the project is going to be end soon. Pushing the burden on the former Congress rule, He said that MOU was signed by the Congress Government in 2016-17 and now it could not be amended.
Singha said that the Government should be allowed to link them under the project with water harvesting as non clonal rootstocks required very less water for the irrigation. He said that due to small land holding of two to three bigha plots are not being covered under the project as they did not have enough water sources. He said that farmers who could collect water from their roof to use in the orchards should be included in the project. Congress member Jagat Singh Negi also said that a Chaura village of his assembly segments is building water structures whereas multi core irrigation schemes are already available by the Jalshakti department. He said that it is a waste of money as people have very small landholdings and people did not have enough land to use it for the cluster. He demanded that the Government should review the projects as the consultants did not draft the project in the state ignoring the landholdings and hill topography.
However, the minister said that the world bank project could not be reviewed as it would be over soon.
