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The Uttarakhand government on Wednesday said it would set up watershed management council to oversee the works of various livelihood-generation projects, especially in the forest areas, and said programmes such as watershed management and forest reserve management should be brought under a single umbrella.
A decision to this effect was taken by Chief Minister Harish Rawat during a review meeting of watershed and livelihood projects here. Rawat also expressed concern over the slow pace of watershed management projects saying its fruits were not reaching the local people, especially in the forest areas.
Rawat asked the department to involve villagers in animal husbandry programmes, which he said could provide livelihood to the people in the hilly areas. He also expressed concern over the slow progress in the tree plantation programmes that include fodder stocks for the villagers.
Significantly, the government has taken a series of loans on various projects under the watershed management from the World Bank. But most of the projects have failed to provide satisfactory benefits to the people, senior officials said.
Reviewing projects under the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a United Nations body, the chief minister said there was a need to involve local people in them. He said these projects should also focuse on the forest panchayats. In this regard, he pointed out that new apple orchards can be developed in high altitude areas. Rawat also stressed the need for developing new cold storages in the state.
Under a project sponsored by the IFAD, the state government is getting 90 per cent of the total project cost of Rs 793 crore as grant from the centre. In a yet another related project, a grant of Rs 750 crore is being provided by the World Bank for a decentralised watershed project which is also being launched in the state.
