Jalyukt Shivar Yojana (JSY) Maharashtra (mrsac.maharashtra.gov.in/jalyukt)
Maharashtra is one of the most droughts affected and water scarce states in India where farmers suffer from shortage of water in their agricultural fields each year. This scheme introduced by the Maharashtra state government aims to provide relief to those farmers and make those affected areas drought free by 2019. One of the main needs of performing healthy agriculture is the proper availability of water for irrigation, which has been a major issue in this state. It has also resulted in low agricultural yield and higher numbers of farmer suicides in the state.
Jalyukt Shivar Yojana Launch
To check this problem and implement new water conservation and irrigation techniques, the Maharashtra State govt. has introduced this project. The Hon’ble CM of the state Shree Devendra Fadnavis has launched this scheme in the year 2015. The state govt. has also started an online portal dedicated to this scheme – http://mrsac.maharashtra.gov.in/jalyukt/. This portal is designed as well as developed / maintained by MRSAC which works under the Dept. of Water Conservation, Govt. of Maharashtra. The MRSAC has also developed one mobile application where one will get several scheme details. The Maharashtra government aims to finish this water management project by 2019 end, and solve the problem of drought in the state permanently.
Key Features
- Launched in the year 2015, this is a five year project which aims to make Maharashtra a state free of draughts and adequate availability water for irrigation purpose. By 2019 end, the entire state will be having proper water conservation mechanism and smart irrigation technologies which will help in efficiently using the limited water resource and become self-sufficient.
- Water scarcity has resulted in several cultivation fails over the years in Maharashtra. In this state, the farmers largely depend on the monsoon water for their cultivation. A Farmer suicide has affected the state in a big way especially in regions like Marathwada, Vidarbha, etc. Hence, this scheme is going to put a full stop to the continuing farmers’ suicide.
- MRSAC developed one online portal – http://mrsac.maharashtra.gov.in/jalyukt/ as well as a mobile application for smart implementation of project and detailed analysis of the completed work. It works on the idea of using maps to keep tab of the project implementation and storing the records in database, which may be accessed by users. User may get district wise or even taluka wise reports of the project implementation very easily through this web portal.
- Previously, there were some existing scheme on water conservation, its management and irrigation which were implemented in Maharashtra. The govt. with the help of active participation from some non-governmental organizations has bonded those projects into this scheme to eradicate the root causes of draught in the state.
- A team of Jalyukt Shivar is also been formed for spreading awareness among the masses and make it successful. It is also trying to involve Bollywood celebrities to do the project campaigning and boost the project. One such celebrity with whom the state govt. has already making some initial talks is Mr. Aamir Khan.
- As this is a very huge project which also requires active participation from public, thus it has resulted in generation of thousands of new employment opportunities in the state. Youths are being employed in several project works.
Covered Area
As per the scheme, each year, the state govt. will target 5,000 villages and implement this project so that water related problems could be solved. This leads to the fact that near around 25 thousand villages will be widely covered under this scheme. Within its first six months of launch, the Maharashtra govt. successfully implemented the project in more than 6 thousand villages. The target area set by the government to implement the project is 25 lakh hectares. With proactive participation from the general masses, nearly 15 lakh hectares have already been brought under this scheme, including the worst affected areas.
Jalyukt Shivar Yojana Implementation Process
- Total work area where the project will be implemented were thoroughly studied and identified. The project implementation was started with the mostly affected districts where there are more irrigation problems and drought happenings.
- The execution of the project is done in basically three levels, the first one is the Agricultural Officer of the rank of Superintendant appointed from the Ministry who looks after the implementation in every district of Maharashtra.
- In the second level, one District Collector who has been appointed as the nodal officer of every district is there. The prime duty of the district nodal officer is to look after the overall implementation of the scheme in all regions and keep liaison with both the Ministry level and taluka level. The ground level of the implementation of project is the taluka level.
- Some of the steps taken under this project are building small ponds, wells, canals for water conservation, putting controlled checks on dams, removing silt from water sources to check percolation, deepening as well as broadening river bases, etc.
- Apart from this, the scheme also encourages tree plantation by general public in massive scale which is one of the vital requirements.
Budget
A big budget allocation has already been announced by the Maharashtra state govt. for this water conservation project after its launch. The net initial allocation is Rs. 75,000 crore for the entire scheme. Apart from that, there has been a huge participation in form of funds from general public, which is worth around Rs. 300 crore.
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