हिंदी
Chandigarh, April 23 – Atal Bhujal Yojana is a Participatory Groundwater Management scheme supported by the Central government and World Bank and implemented by the Haryana government. The major objective of this scheme is to create the Hydrogeological data network of groundwater resources in Haryana.
Also, to build community institutions to manage the groundwater resources in the state. As a part of the programme, community mobilisation and awareness activities, as well as capacity building of stakeholders, will take place. Initially, the Water Security Plan of each village will be prepared and the same will be implemented over the next four years.
The World Bank and Government of India team visited the Haryana and reviewed the progress of Atal Bhujal Yojana Haryana. As a part of two days visit, the team had visited the villages in Kurukshetra and attended the multistakeholders workshop at Panchkula.
As a part of the World Bank Mission visit, a multi-stakeholders state workshop of Atal Bhujal Yojana was organised at PWD rest house, Panchkula.
The workshop was attended by Additional Chief Secretary, Irrigation and Water Resources Department, Sh. Devender Singh, Sh. Satya Priya, country lead (Atal Bhujal Yojana) – World Bank, Smt. Keshni Anand Arora IAS(Retd.) Chairperson – HWRA, Sh. Hardeep Singh, Director Agriculture department, Dr Satbir Singh Kadian, EIC cum Project Director (Atal Bhujal Yojana – Haryana) – Irrigation and water resources department, Sh. Umesh Balpande, Director – Atal Bhujal Yojana.
Also, the technical experts of state project management unit, the head of departments from 18 line departments, 14 district nodal officers and other officers will be attending the same.
The opening address was delivered by Smt. Keshni Anand Arora, Chairperson – HWRA.
Smt. Keshni Anand Arora, stated that this workshop on participatory water management has been organized for bring together the ground level workers of Atal Bhujal and other inline departments whose policies can be brought into Atal Jal Scheme through convergence. She also emphasised on communitty participation is the key to achieving the target from this programme.
Sh. Devender Singh, addressing the workshop spoke on various initiatives taken by the Haryana government to work towards the depleting ground water table, he stressed on making the invisible – visible, taking the actual data of ground water table available to all the citizens. He shared that the strategy would be using the decision support tools for groundwater management, by strengthening community-based institutions to foster management, thus improving water use efficiency and enhancing groundwater recharge.
He also stressed on fiscal decentralisation Atal Jal program not only focuses on building state institutions but also supports the general move of the Government of India (GoI) towards fiscal decentralisation. In ATAL JAL, funds are to flow from the central government to the states and from there onwards to the appropriate implementing levels (districts, blocks, GPs, and beneficiaries).
Sh. Hardeep Singh, Director, Agriculture Department emphasised on Mera Pani Meri Virasat scheme that incentivize farmers of Rs 7000 per hectare when adopting paddy to non-paddy crops, and under this scheme govt also ensures MSP for other crops to promote crop diversification. The Major focus would be on convergence of all the national and state schemes, which will pave the way of the success of this programme.
Dr. Satbir Singh Kadian, EIC cum Project Director (Atal Bhujal Yojana – Haryana) – Irrigation and Water Resources Department presented the achievements of the program.
He informed that Haryana had prepared the water security planning of 1300 Gram Panchayats. Also, also stated that Haryana will conduct approx 45000 trainings in four years to achieve the target of sustainable groundwater resources.
Sh. Satya Priya, country lead (Atal Bhujal Yojana) – World Bank applauded the enormous efforts made the Atal Jal Haryana team.
He assured full support from the world bank in controlling the groundwater depletion in Haryana. He also suggested the field team to focus on the adaptation of water-sensitive crops like millets, oilseeds and pulses.
At the workshop, a total of 8 standard operating procedure (SOP) manuals prepared by People’s Science – a technical support agency to Atal Bhujal Yojana were unveiled by the dignitaries.
Dr Anil Gautam Coordinator and Sh. Mahender Wadhwani, team leader of the technical support agency stated that these SOPs will help the state in achieving the desired goal by adopting the efficient monitoring and evaluation approach.
