Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday called for collective efforts to conserve water in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region and proposed supplying water accumulated in MOIL and Western Coalfields Limited mines to farmers, Press Trust of India reported.Speaking at the 17th Agrovision Agriculture Exhibition in Nagpur, Gadkari said successful water conservation and groundwater recharge initiatives in drought-affected parts of Maharashtra would be presented at the event. Farmers could learn from these efforts and undertake similar projects on their farms and in their villages, he added.Gadkari, the chief patron of Agrovision, stressed the need for coordinated water conservation efforts in every district of Vidarbha.
He said discussions would be held on accelerating the work to make the region drought-free and expand irrigation.Referring to the use of mine water for agriculture, Gadkari said, "In Vidarbha, we have mines belonging to Manganese Ore India (MOIL) and WCL (Western Coalfields Limited). Once those mines are excavated, water accumulates there." According to PTI, Gadkari urged Maharashtra minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, who was present at the event, to invite representatives of MOIL and WCL to a major conference at VNIT in December to discuss the proposal.He said a paper had been prepared on the use of mine water, which could be supplied to farmers through solar pumps.
Such a measure would considerably help address drought conditions, he added. "There are 6,500 malguzari (man-made water harvesting) lakes in Vidarbha. By deepening them, more water can be utilised.
Furthermore, if the silt in dams is cleared, their usefulness can be increased," Gadkari said.At a press conference, Gadkari also spoke about the Mankar Trust, which has 1,600 teachers working with 40,000 tribal students. He said the trust had been working for 25 years, while he had worked on water conservation issues for the past 26 years.Responding to reports about his retirement, Gadkari said, "As I have grown older, I say 'now call the young people' (to take part in such initiatives).
But, you publish false news that Gadkari is going to retire."He said the aim was to transfer knowledge from one generation to the next and that continuous efforts were being made towards it. Dismissing questions about retirement, he added, "This is your generation, the generation before you was that of the earlier journalists.
You will keep doing your work, and I will keep doing mine."Gadkari's proposals focused on expanding water conservation in Vidarbha through mine water, deeper water-harvesting lakes, cleared dam silt and the sharing of successful conservation practices with farmers.- Ends(With PTI inputs)