THE National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has sanctioned Rs 119.24 crore to Haryana and Punjab under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund. Out of this, Rs 110.10 crore is for 34 Irrigation Schemes in Haryana and Rs 9.14 crore for artificial recharge of ground water to the government of Punjab under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund a Nabard release said. For the Rs 135.56 crore projects for irrigation Nabard will give RIDF assistance of Rs 110.10 crore. This will ensure water management and increase intensity of Irrigation and drainage works involving 30 minor, three medium and one major Irrigation Schemes in 13 districts Hisar, Fatehabad, Kaithal, Jind, Karnal, Rohtak, Yamunanagar, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Panipat, Sonepat, Mahendergarh and Rewari in Haryana. The project will be implemented by the Haryana Irrigation Department and will be completed by March 2010. Once completed the project would irrigate about 46,886 hectare area generate about 43 lakh mandays non-recurring employment and recurring employmsent is expected to be about 2,807 mandays/year. The artificial recharge of ground water project would be implemented by the Water Resources & Environment Directorate under Department of Irrigation, Punjab and would be completed by March 2010. The total cost of the project is Rs. 9.61 crore of which Nabard’s RIDF assistance would be Rs 9.14 crore. The project once completed would benefit about 4,621-hectare area of land With the sanctioning of these projects, the total RIDF assistance sanctioned for various purposes under different tranches of RIDF till date, has reached the level of Rs 1673.53 crore and Rs 2,527.56 crore to the Haryana and Punjab state governments respectively. Nabard is also in the process for release of loan amount of Rs 1,270.55 lakh in respect of Rural Drinking Water Supply Schemes under RIDF-XII in the districts of Haryana.