Water bodies scheme to cover nine states

Sixteen districts in nine states have been adopted under the government's ambitious programme for restoration of water bodies. The Centre has decided that first two installments of its share of funding will be released after the approval of a detailed project report within six months.

The Centre had earmarked a Rs 300-crore outlay for the national project to repair, renovate and restore water bodies linked with agriculture.

"The Centre has already released an amount of Rs 12.75 crore for projects to be undertaken in six states," said an official.

Nine states where projects have been adopted are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Officials said a sanctioning committee of the ministry of water resources would be meet soon to examine proposals sent by Kerala and Assam for two districts.

The committee, headed by additional secretary in the ministry of water resources, examines detailed project reports sent by the Central Water Commission.

The committee has representatives from the ministries of agriculture, rural development and water resources.

According to the guidelines issued by the Centre, projects selected by states should be for augmenting storage capacity of tanks and water bodies. States will restore those water bodies which have original irrigation culturable command area of 40 to 2,000 hectares.

Seventy-five per cent of the scheme will be funded by the Centre and the remaining by state governments.

The central funding will be in form of grants.

The Centre has set a pre-condition to sanctioning annual funds to states. States will have to make provisions for funds, including both the central and the state share, in state budgets.

The first installment of the central share will be released within six months after the approval of detailed project reports. This installment will be released on receipt of the utilisation certificate and the expenditure statement of the first installment.

Subsequent installments will be released after the receipt of utilisation certificates for the penultimate installment.