- Governing Council Meeting of the State Watershed Management Agency Concludes
The ninth meeting of the Governing Council of the State Watershed Management Agency was held today at Mantralaya Mahanadi Bhawan, presided over by Chief Secretary Shri Vikas Sheel. During the meeting, the Chief Secretary instructed officials to carry out watershed management activities in accordance with the guidelines prescribed by the Government of India. He emphasized prioritizing groundwater conservation and augmentation works within the watershed projects in the state. He also directed officials to incorporate a maximum number of livelihood-generating activities into the projects to provide employment opportunities to people in rural areas. A detailed review was conducted regarding various watershed conservation works—including plantation, ‘Amrit Sarovar’, stop dams, and check dams—under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana and the Watershed Area Development Programme.
The progress of watershed development programs from 2021 to the present was reviewed in detail. Discussions were held regarding the proposal for area approval and the preparation of the preliminary report for the Watershed Development Programme—Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana 3.0. Necessary directives were issued to officials to include various livelihood activities under the watershed development programs, such as dairy farming, poultry, fisheries, goat rearing, piggery, duck rearing, beekeeping, drip irrigation, sprinklers, pump motors, pumps, incense stick (agarbatti) production, vegetable cultivation, flour mills, pulse milling machines, and spice grinding machines. During the meeting, officials reported that the state has seen an increase in additional irrigated acreage due to the construction of water harvesting structures—such as check dams, stop dams, wells, farm ponds, earthen dams, irrigation tanks, dabris (small farm ponds), and soil and moisture conservation structures—thereby benefiting the state’s farmers.
The meeting was attended by PCCF Shri Arun Pandey; the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Siddharth Komal Pardeshi; and other members of the Governing Council, including representatives from the Finance, Public Health Engineering, and Forest Departments, the Rural Livelihood Mission, NABARD, Indira Gandhi Agricultural University, the Panchayat and Rural Development Department, the Chhattisgarh Council of Science and Technology, and the Central Ground Water Board.
