A senior official of the Uttarakhand Government has sought the intervention of Union Rural Development Minister Birender Singh Chaudhary to ensure speedy creation of an agency and posts for smooth implementation of projects under the Integrated Water Management Programme (IWMP) in his State.
According to sources in the Ministry, Kapil lall, Additional CEO, State level Nodal Agency, Uttarakhand at a steering committee meeting, chaired by RD Ministry’s land and Resources Department Vandana Kumari Jena here, was apparently peeved at the absence of infrastructure and human resources which were hampering the progress of projects under IWMP schemes.
According to the minutes of the meeting held on November 10, lall requested Jena to “arrange for a letter from Minster of Rural Development (Chaudhary) to the Chief Minister Uttarakhand (Harish Rawat) in order to get the process expedited”.
At the meeting, the official informed the committee that “a proposal for creation of an appropriate institutional set up along with new posts for implementation of the IWMP in the districts on the lines of the World Bank project had been submitted to the State Government and was still pending with the finance department of the State”.
The meeting was held to review the progress of IWMP which is being implemented with Central and State Government funding. The projects are meant for reviving water resources and conserving water in drought-hit areas as well as the region.
Expressing concern at the indifferent attitude of the Uttarakhand Government for effective implementation of the IWMP, Jena noted that “no concrete action had been taken by the State for putting a suitable institutional and administrative structure for effective implementation of the programme even after a lapse of seven months since her meeting with the State Chief Secretary”.