Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, March 23 2010:
Sixteen Watershed Management Project out of 43 sanctioned in state by the Central government have been foreclosed, an official source said today adding that only two have so far completed.
Integrated Watershed Management provides a framework to integrate natural resource management with community livelihoods in a sustainable way.
This action area addresses the issues of degradation of natural resources, soil erosion, landslides, floods, frequent droughts and desertification, low agricultural productivity, poor water quantity and quality and poor access to land and related resources from an integrated watershed management perspective.
In Manipur, 43 projects were sanctioned by the government of India.
Out of these 43 projects seven are 100% Centrally Sponsored Scheme and 36 projects are with State share component.
Two projects with 100 percent funding have been completed, 25 are ongoing while 16 projects have been foreclosed, the officials at the State Level Nodal Agency for Watershed Management Programme revealed Sunday in an interaction with this correspondent.
District-wise status reports of ongoing projects and status of unspent amount and utilization pending were reviewed recently under the chair of state Chief Secretary, DS Poonia, he said.
In the meeting it was noted that there is an unspent amount of Rs 3.17 crores and pending utilization certificate for more than Rs 6.30 crores as per information available with the state Planning Department.
It was also informed that as per the department of land resources, Ministry of Rural Development that there is UC pending for Rs 7.10 crores.
The DCs were also asked to confirm the pending UCs and update the information.
The Chief Secretary emphasized on the need for expediting utilization of funds for ongoing schemes to avail of funds for new watershed programmes.
He also advised the DCs to expedite the progress and submit report and UCs in time within this month, March.