Maharashtra cabinet approves programme to conserve water

MUMBAI: State cabinet of Maharashtra on Thursday, February 4, approved the Chief Minister’s new Water Conservation Programme. The scheme has been formulated a year after discontinuing the Jal Shivar Scheme, on the lines of previous government’s flagship scheme of water conservation. The programme aims to restore the irrigation capacity of the state by repairing the water sources. It is being implemented from April 2020 and will go on till March 2023.

According to officials, a large number of water sources have been created in the last four years but they are not used to their full potential owing to lack of good operation and maintenance. Almost 8,000 water sources in the region require repairing to restore them and the irrigation capacity, the officials added. The programme will require a funding of Rs 1,340.75 crore. Water sources such as village ponds, storage tanks, irrigation ponds, small irrigation structures and others with an irrigation capacity till 600 hectares will be restored.

The Vigilance and Quality Control team of Soil and Conservation Department will inspect the progress in regular intervals and it will be monitored by a project implementation cell at the state level. Following a report by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which reflected lack of transparency in the project works between 2014 and 2019, Government of Maharashtra has constituted a committee to investigate the irregularities in the discontinued Jal Shivar Scheme.