Mumbai: With the threat of a severe drought-cum-scarcity looming large, the Maharashtra government got into the act by earmarking Rs.3.5 billon ($875 million) to pay for various Employment Guarantee Schemes (EGS) across the state.

Currently, 67,000 people are working under different employment guarantee schemes in the state, and it has a capacity to provide employment to five million more, state EGS Minister Harshavardhan Patil said here Thursday.

The announcement came a day after the state cabinet declared that 164 of the 355 talukas (sub-districts) in the state were hit by drought owing to scanty rainfall in some areas and totally dry spell in other - spelling bad news for politicians gearing up for the assembly elections next year.

Patil said in the wake of the scarcity-like situation, the government was initiating EGS works like water conservation, road construction, digging drains, small dams' construction, social forestry projects and other schemes on "a war footing" for the people.

He said the past three years, the state had good rainfall so not many EGS works were launched. This year, however, since the situation is bad, the state EGS machinery has been activated fukll swing to serve people's needs, Patil added.

Senior officials from the state government headquarters, Mantralaya, including principal secretary (EGS) Sunil Porwal, have been advised to maintain regular touch with all divisional commissioners and district collectors and keep the tab on the situation.