Dimapur, August 3 (MExN): Presiding over the review meetings organised by the Department of Land Resources in Ministry of Rural Development with 28 States from July 10 to 26 to review the watershed programmes, Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, the Minister (RD) has expressed concern over the depleting water table in various parts of the country and the need to conserve and harvest the water.
Under Integrated Wasteland Development Programme (IWDP), the pace of implementation in States like Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Nagaland has been satisfactory. Orissa has set up a watershed mission in the State for effective execution of the area development programmes in the State. Gujarat has also recently set up Gujarat State Watershed Management Agency (GSWMA) as an autonomous body to monitor and facilitate the watershed schemes in the State. Six Deputy Commissioners have been appointed in Maharashtra at the State Head Quarter to coordinate and monitor the watershed projects.
The Minister (RD) expressed concern with the performance of the IWDP projects in the State of Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Jharkhand, Kerala, Manipur and West Bengal. He directed that regular monthly reviews should be held by the concerned state authorities at the state and district level. Under Desert Development Programme (DDP), some states namely Haryana, Himachal Pradesh & Jammu & Kashmir have not been able to claim Central assistance in respect of projects sanctioned under Hariyali Guidelines from 2003-04 onwards and instructed all concerned officers to take special efforts to step-up the pace of implementation of the programmes in these states.
In respect of Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP), the States namely Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Uttaranchal, and West Bengal have also not been able to claim the Central assistance. The respective State representatives were advised to submit the claims with complete documents/information immediately in respect of projects where installment is due so that the projects are completed within the stipulated period.
Dr Singh advised the concerned state representatives to complete the projects in a time bound manner so that the benefits of the programme reach the poor, small and marginal farmers as targeted under these schemes. He also stressed upon the need for online monitoring of the programmes by each State for which the department has already launched a separate website (www.watershed.nic.in) and training to the States of Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand shall be provided by the department during August and September, 2007, the on-line monitoring has already been started in most of the States and the officers representing also assured to make the entries up to date within the coming three months positively.
At present, 1742 projects under Integrated Wasteland Development Programme (IWDP) are in 476 districts of 28 States, 19710 projects in 972 Blocks of 185 districts in 16 States under Drought Prone Area Development Programme (DPAP) and 13552 projects each covering an area of about 500 Ha. In 235 Blocks of 40 districts in 7 States are being implemented. Central assistance of Rs. 1115.00 crores was released during 2006-07 to the States. In 2007-08, an amount of Rs. 158.00 crores has been released as central assistance as on July 26. The Principal Secretaries and Secretaries in-charge of the watershed programmes from various States attended the review and informed about the status of these projects in the States.