Madhya Pradesh: Women to manage ponds through self-help groups in Morena

Morena (Madhya Pradesh): Women will manage ponds through self-help groups, official sources said. Besides managing irrigation, women will do fish farming in these ponds.

According to reports, 101 ponds have been constructed under the Amrit Yojna scheme. Of them, 85 have been handed over to the women who will manage those water bodies and earn a living through fisheries and irrigation, sources further said.

According to chief executive officer of the district Panchayat, Ichhit Gadhpale, the construction of the ponds began in April last year and completed in August.

The women will also manage irrigation of farmlands with the help of water from 82 ponds and do fish farming in 11. Chestnuts will be grown in eight other ponds. 

Over 83 hectares will be irrigated with the water of these ponds, and 57 hectares of barren land will be turned into farmlands with the water of these tanks. 

More than 17.91 lakh cubic meters of water will be collected from the 101 ponds, sources further said.

The ponds will help the farmers irrigate their fields in Pahargarh,  Joura, Kailaras and Sabalgarh and check the migration of locals to other places for jobs, sources further said.

Chairperson of Janhitkari Women’s Self-help Group, Gita, said that for managing irrigation work, her group had taken a pond.

During the sowing of the Rabi crop, ten hectares will be irrigated, and farming of fishes and chestnuts will be done next year, she said.

Eleven ponds have been constructed in Ambah, 13 in Joura, eight in Kailaras, 40 in Morena, nine in Pahargarh, nine in Porsa and 11 in Sabalgarh.  In all, 101 ponds have been dug in different villages in the district, Gadhpale said.

A pond, dug up at Kachhpura in Ambah Tehsil, has been dedicated to Ramprasad Bismil.

More than 15,000 cubic meters of water will be collected from this pond to irrigate ten hectares, which will benefit 10 families.