Maharashtra govt replaces Jalyukt Shivar with 3-year water conservation scheme

The three-year programme will be implemented at an expenditure of ₹1,340 crore and has been named Chief Minister Water Conservation Programme (CMWCP).

After scrapping Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan — a flagship scheme of the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis government for water conservation, the Maharashtra government on Thursday cleared a new water conservation programme for restoration of irrigation sources having a capacity of up to 600 hectare (ha) in the state. The three-year programme will be implemented at an expenditure of ₹1,340 crore and has been named Chief Minister Water Conservation Programme (CMWCP). The decision was taken in the state cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. (HT FILE)

Under the scheme, the state soil and water conservation department would complete repair and restoration of 7,916 structures in the next three years till March 2023. The work includes repairing small irrigation ponds, storage ponds, old malgujari ponds, village pond, percolation tanks, earthen nala bund, cement nala bund, storage bunds, setting up a pipe distribution system on non-repaired canals etc., said a senior official from the state soil and water conservation department.

“The state government is expected to restore 806,985 TCM (thousand cubic metre) water storage and irrigate 166,184 ha land with the help of the new programme,” he added.

Another official, requesting anonymity, said, “It is quite different from Jalyukt Shivar due to limited scope of work. No new irrigation work would be undertaken under the programme except those related to repair of existing structures. We would be repairing all the old and damaged irrigation sources in the next few years.”

As of now, the duration of the programme is being determined only for three years. The state government will review the progress and decide whether they would like to extend it or not, he added.

Launched in 2014, Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan was expected to help improve groundwater table and make villages water sufficient in five years. Fadnavis had also announced that Maharashtra would be made drought-free by 2019. It was a convergence of several water conservation schemes run by the state government.

Last year, the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government decided to discontinue the scheme over “irregularities”. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its report tabled in the state legislature last year, pointed out deficiencies in planning and lack of provision of adequate funds for maintenance of the works, failure to achieve water neutrality in drought-prone villages and increase in ground water level as intended. After this, the state government announced a probe into the alleged irregularities in the scheme and formed a special investigation team for the same.