MAHENDERGARH: Widespread poverty in the villages of largely arid Mahendergarh district of Haryana ensured that it was the first district to be brought under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) when it was introduced in the state in February 2006. In view of an acute water shortage, the scheme mainly targeted digging of ponds. But three years hence, the water shortage and poverty remain as pronounced, and the ponds are testaments to implementation failure. These ponds, constructed at a cost of Rs 8.37 crore in 2006-08, are without water. An example is that of Madhogarh village. The water scarcity problem of the village stemmed from the inability of its existing pond to store water (it would gradually seep through). In 2008, a new pond was constructed under the NREGS, but its water storage capacity is limited to the monsoon months of June and July (when there is no paucity of water in the older pond). The fact that 80 per cent of the total expenditure was incurred on material and masonry led the director, Rural Development, to remark during his inspection that