Question : Watershed Project under Drought Prone Area Programme

Watershed Project under Drought Prone Area Programme

3586. SHRI RAMDAS C. TADAS:

Will the Minister of RURAL DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:
(a) the details of the watershed projects sanctioned and completed under the Drought Prone Area Programme (DDAP) in the districts of Maharashtra during the last five years, year-wise;

(b) the number and location of watershed projects sanctioned and completed in the State of Maharashtra; and

(c) the details of the targets and achievements of these projects towards resolving drinking water shortage in Maharashtra?

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ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI FAGGAN SINGH KULASTE)

(a)& (b)The Department of Land Resources (DoLR) was earlier implementing three area development programmes namely Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP), Desert Development Programme (DDP) and Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP) on watershed basis.

These three programmes were integrated and consolidated into a single modified programme called the Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) with effect from 26.02.2009 which was later amalgamated in PMKSY in 2015-16 and named as the Watershed Development Component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (WDC-PMKSY).

Under IWMP, from 2009-10 to 2014-15, 8214 projects were sanctioned in 28 States (now 27 States and 2 UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh), out of which 1186 projects were sanctioned in 33 districts of Maharashtra. The districts covered under IWMP (now known as WDC-PMKSY), in Maharashtra are Ahmednagar, Akola, Amravati, Aurabgabad, Beed, Bhandara, Buldhana, Chandrapur, Dhule, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Hingoli, Jalna, Jalgaon, Nanded, Kolhapur, Latur, Nagpur, Nanadurbar, Nashik, Osmanabad, Parbhani, Pune, Raigad, Ratanagiri, Sangli, Satara, Sindhudurg, Sholapur, Thane, Washim, Wardha and Yavatmal.

The district-wise details of projects sanctioned and completed under WDC-PMKSY in Maharashtra are given as Annexure.

Keeping focus on the completion of the sanctioned projects, Government has not sanctioned any new watershed project under WDC-PMKSY from 2015-16 onwards in the country including Maharashtra.

(c) As per the decision at highest level, 1832 projects were transferred to States /UTs in 2018, for implementation with their own resources / budget, which included 162 projects in Maharashtra. Therefore, DoLR has been funding implementation of only 1024 projects in the State.

WDC-PMKSY aims for developing rainfed and degraded land in the country. Out of 1024 watershed projects being funded by DoLR in Maharashtra, as on 30.07.2021, 809 projects have been reported completed. As per the information of the State, between 2014-15 and 2021-22 ( Q 1) 0.16 lakh water harvesting structures have been created / rejuvenated, 1.38 lakh ha additional area has been brought under protective irrigation and 1.94 lakh farmers benefited.
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