• World Bank praises Atal Bhujal Yojana for bringing water use efficiency at the forefront and progress made during last three years.
• Secretary, Department of Water Resources chairs meeting of national level steering committee of Atal Bhujal Yojana.
WD News: The fourth meeting of the National Level Steering Committee (NLSC) of the Atal Bhujal Yojana was held in New Delhi recently under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Department of Water Resources, RD & GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti.
The committee reviewed overall progress of scheme and directed the states to expedite all the activities including procurement as well as convergence for the implementation of interventions proposed under Water Security Plans (WSPs). The committee noted that the scheme implementation was hampered by COVID during initial two years and given that community behavioural change is a time taking process, it was decided that the scheme should be taken up for continuation for another two years beyond the existing time of the scheme.
Secretary, DoWR, Shri Pankaj Kumar stated that overall performance of the scheme is satisfactory and the achievements under Disbursement Linked Indicators are also noteworthy. However, the state must now focus on bringing innovative technologies in the area of irrigation to increase the efficiency of water. He instructed the states to map drinking water sources and carry out study to understand their sustainability and how interventions under Ata Jal can support these sources. Since communities are at the forefront in this scheme, the importance of capacity building of the communities was also emphasised.
Ms Debashree Mukherjee, Special Secretary, DoWR, highlighted the importance of assessment of quality of the trainings being provided at the Gram Panchayat level. She also requested all participating states to integrate WSPs in the Gram Panchayat Development Plans (GPDPs). This integration will provide sustainability to the approach followed by the scheme even after completion of time period.
The Practice Manager, World Bank praised the scheme for bringing water use efficiency at the forefront and noted the progress made during the last three years.
Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal Jal) is being implemented as a Central Sector Scheme since April, 2020 in 8220 water stressed Gram Panchayats of 229 administrative blocks/Talukas in 80 districts of seven states, viz. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh for five-year period (2020-25). The meeting was attended by senior officers of seven states where the scheme is being implemented as well as line departments, who are members of the committee.
Source & image courtesy: PIB
