Protection of five river valley basins tops its agenda

The Western Ghats Task Force has submitted a proposal to recruit 1,000 forest personnel required to protect the natural forests of the Western Ghats. This was announced by Ananth Hegde Ashisara, chairperson of the Task Force, at a meeting on the protection of environment, forests and bio-diversity and pollution control at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in the city on Wednesday.

The rural development minister. Mr Jairam Ramesh, today tabled the ‘MNREGA 2.0’ ~ the second generation reforms for the rural job scheme ~ in both Houses of Parliament. However, the rural development ministry now seems to be heading for a “cold war” with the finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, who yesterday mooted distribution of foodgrain to NREGA workers in view of bumper production.

even years after unveiling the rural job guarantee scheme, the Centre on Tuesday announced a major extension of scope of works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in a bid to revive demand for jobs, which witnessed over 20 per cent dip in the last financial year.

Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday tabled the “MNREGA 2.0 — the second generation reforms” for the flag scheme in both Houses of Parliament

NEW DELHI, 29 APRIL: The Union rural development ministry has claimed that the West Bengal government has “not submitted a single project” under the integrated watershed programme in the last three years while a few states have not spent a single penny on the programme in the last financial year.
According to sources, Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, has written to the chief ministers of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha for reportedly not spending any funds under the Integrated Watershed Management (IWMP) programme for the financial year 2011-12.

Besides administrative machinery, the corporate sector is also playing an important role in the implementation of the Integrated Watershed Area Management Programme in Madhya Pradesh. Works to the tune of about Rs100 crore are being made by various institutions in watershed areas under various projects of corporate social responsibility. Corporate institutions have been selected under public-private partnership and given responsibility of projects of various watershed area management projects.

The need to combat challenges relating to agriculture in Tamil Nadu in a systematic and scientific manner was stressed by the Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Planning and Special Initiatives R.Vijayakumar here on Tuesday.

He was inaugurating a sensitization workshop cum stakeholders consultation on, ‘Soil and Water Conservation and Watershed Management' organized by the Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute (CSWCRTI) at Rees Corner.

Gujarat has received the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration for 2010-11 for a watershed management programme in Patan district, the ancient capital of the western state.

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, presented the award to Mr Ram Kumar, CEO of the Gujarat State Watershed Management Agency (GSWMA), for the initiative titled ‘Participatory Watershed Management Program’ at a function in New Delhi on Saturday, which was also observed as Civil Service Day.