Lok Sabha Question No. 1061 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-02-08
Subject: Watershed Projects in Maharashtra
Ministry: RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Hemant Tukaram Godse

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF LAND RESOURCES

## LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 1061 TO BE ANSWERED ON 08.02.2022

## Watershed Projects in Maharashtra

## 1061. SHRI HEMANT TUKARAM GODSE:

Will the Minister of RURAL DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) the salient features of water shed projects;
- (b) the details of the watershed projects sanctioned and completed under the Drought Prone Area Programme in the districts of Maharashtra during the last five years, year-wise;
- (c) the number and location of watershed projects sanctioned and completed in the State of Maharashtra; and
- (d) the details of the targets and achievements of these projects towards resolving drinking water shortage in Maharashtra?

## 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  (Q  3)  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.

## Annexure

## Annexure referred to in reply to parts (b) to (d) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1061 for answer on 08.02.2022

## District-wise details of projects sanctioned and completed under WDC-PMKSY in Maharashtra

| Sl. No.   | District    |   Total projects sanctioned |   No of projects transferred to State |   Projects funded by DoLR |   Completed |
|-----------|-------------|-----------------------------|---------------------------------------|---------------------------|-------------|
| 1         | Ahmadnagar  |                          38 |                                     6 |                        32 |          14 |
| 2         | Akola       |                          19 |                                     5 |                        14 |          12 |
| 3         | Amravati    |                          36 |                                     7 |                        29 |          24 |
| 4         | Aurangabad  |                          33 |                                     9 |                        24 |          20 |
| 5         | Beed        |                          68 |                                     5 |                        63 |          54 |
| 6         | Bhandara    |                          17 |                                     6 |                        11 |           9 |
| 7         | Buldhana    |                          42 |                                     2 |                        40 |          35 |
| 8         | Chandrapur  |                          29 |                                     5 |                        24 |          10 |
| 9         | Dhule       |                          27 |                                     1 |                        26 |          22 |
| 10        | Gadhchiroli |                           5 |                                     1 |                         4 |           4 |
| 11        | Gondia      |                          20 |                                     7 |                        13 |           8 |
| 12        | Hingoli     |                          33 |                                     3 |                        30 |          29 |
| 13        | Jalgaon     |                          39 |                                     0 |                        39 |          31 |
| 14        | Jalna       |                          39 |                                     5 |                        34 |          28 |
| 15        | Kolhapur    |                          48 |                                     7 |                        41 |          33 |
| 16        | Latur       |                          41 |                                     8 |                        33 |          26 |
| 17        | Nagpur      |                          29 |                                     4 |                        25 |          21 |
| 18        | Nanded      |                          57 |                                     7 |                        50 |          49 |
| 19        | Nandurbar   |                          24 |                                     5 |                        19 |          18 |
| 20        | Nasik       |                          41 |                                     1 |                        40 |          22 |
| 21        | Osmanabad   |                          47 |                                     2 |                        45 |          38 |
| 22        | Parbhani    |                          30 |                                     4 |                        26 |          21 |
| 23        | Pune        |                          39 |                                     9 |                        30 |          27 |
| 24        | Raigadh     |                          45 |                                     4 |                        41 |          21 |
| 25        | Ratnagiri   |                          51 |                                     3 |                        48 |          46 |
| 26        | Sangli      |                          36 |                                     4 |                        32 |          27 |
| 27        | Satara      |                          78 |                                     9 |                        69 |          62 |
| 28        | Sindhudurg  |                          26 |                                     5 |                        21 |          18 |
| 29        | Solapur     |                          50 |                                     4 |                        46 |          39 |
| 30        | Thane       |                          20 |                                     4 |                        16 |          14 |
| 31        | Wardha      |                          30 |                                     5 |                        25 |          11 |
| 32        | Wasim       |                          12 |                                     2 |                        10 |           6 |
| 33        | Yavatmal    |                          37 |                                    13 |                        24 |          11 |
|           | Total       |                        1186 |                                   162 |                      1024 |         810 |

*****