Renowned water conservationist Rajendra Singh today said the funds allocated to the Union Water Resources Ministry in the Budget 2017-18 were not sufficient and it shows that the government has "no respect for water literacy".
"In view of the droughts, floods and dwindling water resources, the funds allocated to Water Resources Ministry in the Union Budget are not sufficient. It is not a responsible budget and has no respect for water literacy," Singh told PTI.
In the budget presented yesterday by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the allocation for the Union Water Resources Ministry was increased by 11 per cent to Rs 6887.00 crore from Rs 6201.21 crore for the on-going fiscal.
Singh said, "Climate change and global warming have created an adverse impact on agriculture and led to problems like soil erosion. There has been a 10 per cent increase in drought and 8 per cent rise in floods across the country."
Singh, who is popularly known as 'Water Man of India', was speaking on the sidelines of a national seminar on 'Wetlands for Future Security' at a college here.
"Our political will on wetlands is not clear and there is no vision for it. The budget should have been more responsible...Water literacy is the need the hour. Funds allocated for this are very meager," the Ramon Magsaysay Award winner said.
He, however, praised the Maharashtra government "for making separate provisions for water literacy initiative in its budget".
He informed that four water literacy centres will come up in different regions of Maharashtra."
"Maharashtra also issued a Government Resolution (GR) in this regard recently," Singh claimed.
He also lauded the Maharashtra government for its Jalyukta Shivar water programme and said that drought-prone Latur region has its own water resources now thanks to this scheme.
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