In a significant move towards decentralising the planning process to the grassroots level and prevent delays in clearance of projects, all new centrally-funded watershed projects would now be finalised and approved at the state level. New guidelines approved by the National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), a nodal agency to monitor watershed projects, empower the states to sanction and oversee the implementation of watershed projects supported by Centre.

The reform initiative will not only help cut down delays in projects due to bureaucratic red tape, but also ensure that watershed works are taken up on the basis of local needs. Till now, as many as five ministries?rural development, agriculture, environment and forests, water resources and panchayati raj?were responsible for sanctioning and implementing watershed projects, with differing guidelines and separate accounts of their own.

?There were several bottlenecks in implementation of watershed projects as each ministry maintained their own guidelines, accounts and authority to monitor projects,? JS Samra, NRAA?s Chief Executive Officer told FE. The guidelines, in effect from April 1, are aimed at achieving better utilisation of resources and quicker implementation at the grassroots level, particularly in rainfed areas.

The Planning Commission estimates rainfed areas to be around 85 million hectares out of the 142 million hectares net cultivated area. The potential of these rainfed areas to achieve higher agricultural yield and contribute to national food security hasn?t been tapped till date.

Importantly, besides a dedicated state level nodal agency, a District Watershed Development Unit (DWDU) would be established in districts with more than 25,000 hectares under watershed works. The DWDU would implement all the watershed projects with independent accounts of their own?a first in centrally sponsored schemes.

The state-level agency would have representative from NRAA, one of the five concerned ministries, NABARD and officials from the state?s departments of rural development, agriculture, animal husbandry and ground water board.

By the end of February each year, the states will submit detailed annual action plans indicating new projects to be taken up. The concerned ministry would then allocate specific amount to states based on criteria like unspent balance, percentage of completed projects etc.

?After states have received their allocation against ongoing and new projects, they are free to sanction their projects within the state allocation,? a rural development ministry official said. Once the state agency sanctions the new projects, the concerned ministry would release the funds directly to the district level agency.

Incidentally, a technical committee under Prof CH Hanumantha Rao to assess the Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP) and Desert Development Programme (DDP) had suggested these changes as far back as 1994. Rao?s panel had slammed watershed programmes? implementation ?in a fragmented manner by different departments through rigid guidelines without any involvement of any beneficiaries.?

The Rao panel had also suggested that DPAP and DDP must be brought under one umbrella. Studies in recent years by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Planning Commission have found that watershed projects? success has been ?sporadic and intermittent?. Samra agrees that the impact of watershed programmes in increasing productivity, bringing additional area under agriculture and employment generation, has been ?inadequate?.

The rural development ministry revised the guidelines during 1994-2001. In 2000, rural development ministry again revised guidelines for National Watershed Development Projects for Rainfed Areas and yet again in 2003 the guidelines were changed under ?Hariyali Guidelines?.