Newsletter No. 64; Year Program / Policy / Guideline Major objective( s) Relevant Institution
IRBMS
2008 Common Guidelines for Watershed Development
( Neeranchal) released17
Promote a fresh framework to guide all WSD projects in all departments and ministries.
National Rainfed Area Authority( NRAA) and Planning Commission
2009 Integrated Watershed Management Programme
( IWMP) 18
2011 Revised Common Guidelines for Watershed
Development released19
2013
Revisions added to 2008 Common Guidelines( known as Neeranchal Guidelines) 20
Consolidated three programs: IWDP, DPAP, and DPP. Programs adopted a cluster approach focusing on a cluster of micro-watersheds( 1000 ha to 5000 ha scale).
Provide amendments to the 2008 guidelines based on clarifications and suggestions.
Add new features to the 2008 Common Guidelines to ensure momentum to the IWMP while strengthening its innovative features.
( Source: World Resources Institute, Working Paper, December 2013)
By the late 1990s, annual expenditure on watershed development in India approached almost an equivalent of $ 500 million( Rs 2500 crores), yet very little information is available on the success or failure of these different projects. The National Sample Survey( NSS, 1994) reported that despite the extensive programmes carried out to provide drinking-water to rural areas, 1,40,975 villages( 24 % of India’ s total) still had a drinkingwater problem. In 1994 a technical Committee under the Chairmanship of Prof. C. H. Hanumantha Rao, was appointed to assess the Drought Prone Areas Programme( DPAP) and the Desert Development Programme( DDP) with the purpose of identifying weaknesses and suggesting improvements. The Committee made a number of recommendations
MoRD
NRAA and Planning Commission
MoRD
and formulated a set of guidelines that brought the DDP, the DPAP and the Integrated Wastelands Development Programme( IWDP) under a single umbrella. The watershed projects taken up by the Ministry of Rural Development( MoRD) from 1994 to 2001 followed these guidelines. The Central Govt. in 1999-2000 had announced the creation of a Watershed Development Fund( WDF) with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development( NABARD).
( Contd...)
Editor- Sujit Choudhury, Published by Girija Sankar Chattopadhay, IRBMS, assisted by Nilshikha Das(© Integrated River Basin Management Society)
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Integrated River Basin Management Society