On February 4, 2021 Maharashtra Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray approved the implementation of INR 1, 340 Crore worth ‘Chief Minister Water Conservation Programme’. It will be implemented for a period of 3 years (April 2020-March 2023) by the Soil and Water Conservation Department of Maharashtra.
i.Objective of the Scheme – To undertake repair & restoration of existing water bodies in Maharashtra & improve the irrigation capacity.
ii.Functions of the scheme
- To increase the storage capacity around 7, 916 water resources will be repaired for use in small villages.
- A special repair programme for small dams (fixing leakage & increasing storage capacity) will be initiated. Small dams within the irrigation capacity limit of up to 600 hectares on water bodies like ponds, lakes and dams, cement nullah dams will be taken up for repair.
- Canal repair works will also be undertaken to put an end to the wastage of water.
iii.Inspection & Implementation:
The programme will be inspected by the Soil and Conservation Department’s Vigilance and Quality Control Team periodically.
- A Project Implementation Cell will be set up at the state level to monitor the progress of the project.
iv.Background:
- In December 2019, Maharashtra Government had stopped the implementation of the Water Conservation Programme ‘Jalyukt Shivar’.
- The Jalyukt Shivar was introduced by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to make Maharashtra ‘drought-free’.
- According to the Maharashtra Government, the programme was stopped due to its ‘poor quality of work’ at the ground level.
Recent Related News:
i.On December 22, 2020 Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) worth about INR 61, 042 Crore with 25 Indian Companies under its ‘Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0’ initiative.
About Maharashtra:
Major Rivers – Godavari, Krishna
Tribes – Thakar, Katkari (also called Kathodi)
