ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI FAGGAN SINGH KULASTE)
(a): The salient features of watershed projects implemented by Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development inter-alia are as under:
i. The Watershed Development Component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana follows ridge to valley approach for development of rainfed / degraded lands.
ii. It emphasizes on sustainable livelihood options for asset-less people, also on production system and microenterprises for small & marginal farmers.
iii. The cost norms for watershed projects are Rs. 22,000/ ha for plain areas, Rs. 28,000/ha for hilly/difficult areas and upto Rs.28000/ ha for Left Wing Extremism /Integrated Action Plan Districts.
iv. The project duration is 3 to 5 years.
v. There is a provision of dedicated institution of State Level Nodal Agency (SLNA), Watershed Cell cum Data Centre (WCDC), Project Implementing Agency (PIA) and Watershed Committee (WC) at State, District, Project and Village levels, respectively.
vi. Adoption of Integrating Farming Systems (IFS) approach particularly Agri-Horticulture.
vii. Spring-shed development has been introduced as one of the activities under watershed projects
viii. Farmers Producers Organization (FPO) has been introduced right from the planning stage of projects.
ix. Use of Geographical Information System / Remote Sensing Technology for planning and monitoring of projects.
(b)to(d): 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 2015-16and named as the Watershed Development Component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (WDC-PMKSY).
Under IWMP, 8214 projects were sanctioned in the country upto 2014-15, of which 1186 were sanctioned in Maharashtra. 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.
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 31.01.2022, 810 projects have been reported completed. As per the information of the State, between 2014-15 and 2021-22 (Q3) 0.16 lakh water harvesting structures have been created/rejuvenated, 1.39 lakh ha additional area has been brought under protective irrigation and 1.97 lakh farmers benefited.
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