Rural development and Panchayati Raj Minister Anil Sharma on Saturday announced that the State Government had prepared and submitted to the Central Government, a long term strategic and prospective plan of Rs4,668.71 cr for Integrated Watershed Management Programme to bring 31,12,472 hectares of land under it.
Sharma was speaking at one-day workshop on strengthening of IWMP guidelines organised by rural development department.
The Minister said that under this project the State had so far been sanctioned Rs1,035.16 crore for 131 such projects covering 6,90,112 hectares of land.
Works related to livelihood generation had been given priority under the project so that people living in such areas could be benefited at large.
Besides, Government was also converging IWMP with schemes like MGNREGA. He said that due to the efforts of the State Government, the World Bank had sanctioned a Development Policy loan (DPl) of Rs1,100 crore for inclusive Green Growth and sustainable development in various fields like watershed, industries and tourism.
Sharma said that the aim of the workshop was to strengthen thereby enhancing existing IWMP guidelines, so that the beneficiaries may easily avail development policy loan. The department had prepared a draft containing some new objectives and activities, he added.