Dr Mihir Shah appointed as Chairman of 11 member Committee to draft the National Water Policy

On January 14, 2020 Dr Mihir Shah, professor at the Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh has been appointed as the chairman of the 11-member committee to draft the National Water Policy(NWP) and will have to submit the report within 6 months from the date of constitution. The committee was established by the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation of govt. of India.National Water Policy draft committee members: The other members of the committee include

• Shashi Shekhar, former Secretary, Water Resources, Govt of India.
• Dr Ramesh Chandra Panda, former secretary.
• Ashwin B Pandya, former chairman of the Centre Water Commission (CWC).
• Prof Tushaar Shah, International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
• Prof Anamika Barua of Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati(IIT-G).
• Dr Himanshu Kulkarni, Advanced Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (ACWADAM), Pune, Maharashtra.
• Srinivas Chokkakula, Centre of Policy Research(CPR).
• B Rath,Technical Expert (Water Management), National Rainfed Area Authority(NRAA), Development of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare.
• Brijesh Sikka, Retd. Scientist ‘G’, National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD).
• Prof KJ Joy, Senior Fellow, Society of promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM).

Dr. Mihir Shah’s previous work:

• 2009-2014: He was responsible for shift in water resource management in India as enunciated in the 12th Five Year Plan, during his tenure as Member, Planning Commission, Government of India from 2009 to 2014.
• 2015: He was appointed by the govt in 2015 to chair committee for restructuring the Central Water Commission (CWC) and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB).
• Current position:  He is a Professor and Chair, Water Science and Policy Program Department of Center for Public Affairs and Critical Theory (C-PACT), School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SoHSS) at Shiv Nadar University.

About Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation:
Formation- January 1985.
Renaming- July 2014 as Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation.
Current name- Ministry of Jal Shakti after merging with Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in May 2019.
Union minister- Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. (Constituency- Jodhpur, Rajashtan)
Minister of State(MoS)- Ratan Lal Kataria. (consituency- Ambala, Haryana)