The Government on Tuesday said that due to drought like conditions in the current year, the limit of 100 days of guaranteed employment under NREGA has been increased by additional 50 days. While outlining steps taken by the government to mitigate the impact of drought, the Agriculture Minister Mr. Sharad Pawar said that 316 districts in the country are affected that by drought and the Centre has sanctioned nearly 4074 crore rupees for the National Calamity Contingency Fund, NCCF to 11 states. He informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that advisories have been sent to the States to ensure that 30 percent of the benefits are given to the women. Sharing the concern of the members on farmers suicides in Vidharba the region Mr. Pawar admitted that 154 farmers have committed suicide so far in the region and 48 in Marathwara. He said that a special four thousand package had been announced for Vidharba and the region is getting funds for irrigation under the accelerated irrigation scheme of the Centre. He said that as Maharashtra has its own Employment Guarantee Scheme, NREGA which was not popular is now being pushed and till the fourth of this month 155 crore rupees worth of man days were generated.<br/><br/>The government on Tuesday said that an appropriate mechanism is in place to check any leakage of funds for NREGA. Replying to a query regarding siphoning of funds allotted for the flagship programme, in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Rural Development Minister Dr C P Joshi said that Ombudsmen are being appointed at district level for redressal of grievances in a time bound manner. The Minister said that a web enabled Management Information System has been made operational which make all critical parameters such as job cards, muster roll, number of days etc available on the web site. He added that disbursement of wages through accounts, social audit at Panchayat level, independent monitoring by eminent citizens and district level monitoring committees are some of the measures being adopted.