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Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India will be launching a pilot scheme for national project for repair, renovation and restoration of water bodies linked to agriculture from Chhattisgarh on 30th April, 2005. The launching ceremony will be held at Bhoramdev Tank, Kabirdham District in the presence of Lt. General K.M. Seth, AVSM, PVSM (Retd.), Governor, Chhattisgarh. Shri Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, Minister for Water Resources, Government of India, Dr. Raman Singh, Chief Minister, Chhattisgarh, Shri Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav, Minister of State for Water Resources, Govt. of India and Shri Hem Chand Yadav, Minister in charge of Water Resources, Chhattisgarh.
The Union Finance Minister in his Budget Speech 2004-05 had proposed to launch a massive scheme to repair, renovate and restore all the water bodies directly linked to agriculture. To begin with, Pilot projects were proposed to be taken up. Accordingly the pilot scheme for a total outlay of Rs.300 crore for the remaining period of X Five Year Plan was approved by the Govt. in January, 2005 under which pilot projects in one or two districts each in the state for water bodies having original irrigation culturable command area of 40 ha up to 2000 ha are to be taken up. The objective of the scheme is to repair and augment storage capacity of the water bodies and to recover and extend their lost irrigation potential. The detailed project Reports are to be prepared and submitted by the states as per guidelines for the scheme for approval of Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) for funding. The detailed project reports were invited from all States for one or two districts in the State. In the first phase, 16 district projects of 9 states namely Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka. Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal were approved for an estimated cost of Rs.168 crore as per the project proposals from the States.
The pilot scheme being launched by the Prime Minister envisages active community participation for implementation of the projects. The main features of the scheme are: There will be a district level implementation committee chaired by the District Collector for deciding all implementation management issues and overall supervision & monitoring. The Vice-Chairman of the Committee will be a reputed NGO. The Panchayati Raj Institutions and Water Users Associations and representative of all stakeholders will be actively involved in the Committee. Revived facilities are to be handed over to the community representatives after the projects are completed for effective operation and maintenance.
The main thrust of the projects will be increase in storage capacity of the water bodies although some funds will be utilized for ancillary works for conveyance system. The detailed surveys are also to be undertaken in each district to establish base line data for performance evaluation of the project. Fund will also be utilized for capacity building & people’s participation, catchment area treatment wherever required. Convergence with related activities under other schemes will also be targeted. Cost effectiveness of the respective projects will be an important consideration. The Projects are to be completed within a period of two years. There will be a graded and bottom up approach for progressive monitoring and evaluation of the project work at local, district and state levels in the respective states. Monitoring of the project will also be done through CWC in the states, consisting of on –site examination of works and off-site analysis of states monitoring reports.
Once the pilot projects are completed an validated, it will form the basis for launching the National Water Resources Development Project at much larger scale and speed.
RKJ/AM
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