IWDP - Hariyali
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Introduction
- To involve village communities in the implementation of watershed projects under all the area development programmes namely, Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP), Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP) and Desert Development Programme (DDP), the Guidelines for Watershed Development were adopted w.e.f.1.4.1995, and subsequently revised in August 2001. To further simplify procedures and involve the Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) more meaningfully in planning, implementation and management of economic development activities in rural areas, these new Guidelines called Guidelines for Hariyali are being issued.
Applicability
- New projects under the area development programmes shall be implemented in accordance with the Guidelines for Hariyali with effect from 1.4.2003. Projects under DPAP and DDP will be taken up in the blocks identified under the respective programme and projects under IWDP shall generally be taken up in the remaining blocks. Projects sanctioned prior to this date shall continue to be implemented as per the Guidelines of 2001.
Objectives
- The objectives of projects under HARIYALI will be: -
i. i.Harvesting every drop of rainwater for purposes of irrigation, plantations including horticulture and floriculture, pasture development, fisheries etc. to create sustainable sources of income for the village community as well as for drinking water supplies.
ii. ii.Ensuring overall development of rural areas through the Gram Panchayats and creating regular sources of income for the Panchayats from rainwater harvesting and management.
iii. iii.Employment generation, poverty alleviation, community empowerment and development of human and other economic resources of the rural areas.
iv. iv.Mitigating the adverse effects of extreme climatic conditions such as drought and desertification on crops, human and livestock population for the overall improvement of rural areas.
v. v.Restoring ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and developing natural resources i.e. land, water, vegetative cover especially plantations.
vi. vi.Encouraging village community towards sustained community action for the operation and maintenance of assets created and further development of the potential of the natural resources in the watershed.
vii. vii.Promoting use of simple, easy and affordable technological solutions and institutional arrangements that make use of, and build upon, local technical knowledge and available materials.
Sanction of Projects
- The projects will be sanctioned by the Department of Land Resources in the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India as per procedure in vogue. The Department may amend or relax this procedure from time to time. For interpretation of any of the provisions of these Guidelines, the Department of Land Resources will be the final authority. The Department may sanction special projects for treatment of wastelands in Special Problem Areas such as high altitude regions, land slide areas, slopes having more than 30 degree gradient or for any other specified technical reason. These projects need not necessarily be implemented through participatory mode and may be implemented on intensive treatment specific, departmental approach.
Criteria for Selection of Watersheds
- The following criteria may broadly be used in selection of the watersheds:
i. i. Watersheds where People’s participation is assured through contribution of labour, cash, material etc. for its development as well as for the operation and maintenance of the assets created.
ii. ii. Watershed areas having acute shortage of drinking water.
iii. iii. Watersheds having large population of scheduled castes/scheduled tribes dependent on it.
iv. iv. Watershed having a preponderance of non-forest wastelands/degraded lands.
v. v. Watersheds having preponderance of common lands.
vi. vi. Watersheds where actual wages are significantly lower than the minimum wages.
vii. vii. Watershed which is contiguous to another watershed that has already been developed/ treated.
viii. viii. Watershed area may be of an average size of 500 hectares, preferably covering an entire village. However, if on actual survey, a watershed is found to have less or more area, the total area may be taken up for development as a project.
In case a watershed covers two or more villages, it should be divided into village-wise sub-watersheds confined to the designated villages. Care should be taken to treat all the sub-watersheds simultaneously.
Development of Forest Lands in Watershed Areas
- Some watersheds may encompass, in addition to arable land under private ownership, forest lands under the ownership of State Forest Department. Since nature does not recognize artificial boundaries of forest and non-forest lands in any watershed, the entire watershed is to be treated in an integrated manner. Though the criterion for selection of watersheds primarily remains predominance of non-forest lands, forest lands forming part of such watersheds may also be treated simultaneously as detailed below:
i. i. The Divisional Forest Officer concerned should give technical sanction for the treatment plans.
ii. ii. The treatment plans should as far as possible be implemented by Village Forest Committees in close coordination with the Village Panchayat.
iii. iii. The Micro-watershed Development Plan for the forest areas should be in conformity with the Forest Conservation Act and the approved working plan of the area.
iv. iv. Where a large portion of the watershed is covered by forestlands, Forest Department at the district level should be encouraged to take up the work of development as Project Implementation Agency.
v. v. A forest official should invariably be included as a member of the Watershed Development Team wherever forestland falls within the watershed.
Project Commencement
- The date of sanction of the project shall be date of project commencement for all purposes. The project shall be implemented over a period of five years from the date of its sanction.
- The projects under these Guidelines will be implemented, mainly, through the Zilla Parishads (ZPs)/District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs). However, wherever it is expedient in the interest of the Programmes, the projects can be implemented through any Department of the State Government or an autonomous agency of the Central Government/State Government with the approval of the Department of Land Resources, Government of India.
Project Implementation Agencies
- At the district level, ZP/DRDA shall be the nodal authority for implementation of all the area development programmes under the supervision and guidance of the State Government and the Government of India. It shall approve the selection of watersheds, the appointment of Project Implementation Agencies, approve the action plan/treatment plan of the projects etc. The CEO (ZP)/PD(DRDA) shall maintain the accounts of watershed projects and shall sign all statutory papers such as Utilization Certificates (UCs), Audited Statements of Accounts, Progress Reports, Bonds etc.
- The ZP/DRDA will be entitled to recover funds from any institution/ organization/ individual and take appropriate action under law if the project is not properly implemented or funds are misutilised or not spent as per these Guidelines.
- At the field level, the Gram Panchayats shall implement the projects under the overall supervision and guidance of Project Implementation Agencies (PIAs). An intermediate Panchayat may be the PIA for all the projects sanctioned to a particular Block/Taluka. In case, these Panchayats are not adequately empowered, then the ZP can either act as PIA itself or may appoint a suitable Line Department like Agriculture, Forestry/Social Forestry, Soil Conservation etc. or an Agency of the State Government/ University/ Institute as PIA. Failing these options, the ZP/DRDA may consider appointing a reputed Non-Government Organization (NGO) in the district with adequate experience and expertise in the implementation of watershed projects or related area development works as the PIA after thoroughly checking its credentials. Nonetheless, the State Governments should endeavor to empower the PRIs and build their capacities so that they may ultimately be in a position to take up the responsibility of independently implementing the watershed development projects as PIAs. An NGO-PIA shall normally be assigned 10-12 watershed projects covering an area ranging from 5,000-6,000 hectares. However, in exceptional and deserving cases, an NGO-PIA may be assigned a maximum of 12,000 hectares at a time including ongoing projects in all the Programmes of similar nature in a district and a maximum of 25,000 hectares in the State.
- An NGO is eligible for selection as PIA only if it has been active in the field of watershed development or any similar area developmental activities in rural areas for some years. The quantum of funds handled by an agency in the last 3 years may be taken into account for their selection as PIA by the ZP/DRDA. The NGOs blacklisted by CAPART or other Departments of State Government and Government of India should not be appointed as PIA.
- The Project Implementation Agency (PIA) will provide necessary technical guidance to the Gram Panchayat for preparation of development plans for the watershed through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) exercise, undertake community organization and training for the village communities, supervise watershed development activities, inspect and authenticate project accounts, encourage adoption of low cost technologies and build upon indigenous technical knowledge, monitor and review the overall project implementation and set up institutional arrangements for post-project operation and maintenance and further development of the assets created during the project period.
- The ZP/DRDA shall, normally, be the authority competent to decide on the suitability or otherwise of the Project Implementation Agency (PIA) for taking up projects under the watershed development programmes. However, the State Government may consider changing the PIA in any of the projects on specific grounds with prior concurrence of the Department of Land Resources, Govt. of India.
- Each PIA shall carry out its duties through a multi-disciplinary team designated as the Watershed Development Team (WDT). Each WDT should have at least four members one each from the disciplines of forestry/plantsciences, animal sciences, civil/agricultural engineering and social sciences. At least one member of the WDT should be a woman. Preferable qualification for a WDT member should be a professional degree. However, the qualification can be relaxed by the ZP/DRDA in deserving cases keeping in view the practical field experience of the candidate in the relevant discipline. One of the WDT members shall be designated as the Project Leader. The PIA will be at liberty to either earmark its own staff exclusively for this work, or engage fresh candidates including retired personnel, or take people on deputation from government or other organizations. The WDT shall be located at the PIA/Block headquarters/any other town nearest to the cluster of selected villages. Honorarium to the WDT members shall be paid out of the administrative costs as indicated in Annexure-I.
- In order to avoid the tendency for over-emphasis on certain activities related to the speciality of the PIA selected, particularly in the case of Line Departments like Agriculture, Soil Conservation, Forestry etc., the ZP/DRDA should ensure that subject matter specialists from various Line Departments at the district and block levels are involved in the preparation of the plans.
- Gram Panchayats will execute the works under the guidance and control of the Gram Sabha. In States where there are Ward Sabhas (Palli Sabhas etc.) and the area to be treated is within that Ward, the Ward Sabha may perform the duties of the Gram Sabha.
- In 6th Schedule areas, where traditional Village Councils are functioning instead of Gram Panchayats, these Councils may be assigned the responsibilities of the Gram Panchayats/Gram Sabhas. In cases, where there is neither a Gram Panchayat nor the traditional Village Council, the existing provisions of Guidelines (2001) would apply.
- The Gram Panchayat shall carry out the day-to-day activities of the project and will be responsible for coordination and liaison with the Watershed Development Team and the ZP/DRDA to ensure smooth implementation of the project. It shall be responsible for undertaking watershed development works and to make payments for the same.
Gram Sabha Meetings
- The Gram Panchayat shall maintain a separate account for the watershed project and all receipts from ZP/DRDA will be credited to this account. This account shall be operated jointly by the Gram Panchayat Secretary and Gram Panchayat Chairman. The Gram Panchayat Secretary will be responsible for convening meetings of the Gram Panchayat and Gram Sabha and for carrying out all their decisions. He will maintain all the records and accounts of project activities. If required, the Gram Panchayat may appoint two or three volunteers to provide assistance to the Gram Panchayat Secretary in the implementation of activities as per the action plan/treatment plan of the watershed project. The volunteers will be paid honorarium as per Annexure-I.
- The Gram Sabha will meet, at least twice a year to approve/improve the watershed development plan, monitor and review its progress, approve the statement of accounts, form User Groups/Self-Help Groups, resolve differences/disputes between different User Groups, Self-Help Groups or amongst members of these groups, approve arrangements for the collection of public/voluntary donations and contributions from the community and individual members, lay down procedures for the operation and maintenance of assets created and approve the activities that can be taken up with money available in the Watershed Development Fund.
Self-Help Groups
- The Gram Panchayat shall constitute Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the watershed area with the help of WDT from amongst landless/assetless poor, agricultural labourers, women, shepherds, scheduled caste/scheduled tribe persons and the like. These Groups shall be homogenous groups having common identity and interest who are dependent on the watershed area for their livelihood. Separate Self-Help Groups should be organised for women, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes etc.
User Groups
- The Gram Panchayat shall also constitute User Groups (UGs) in the watershed area with the help of WDT. These Groups shall be homogenous groups of persons most affected by each work/activity and shall include those having land holdings within the watershed areas. Each UG shall consist of landholders who are likely to derive direct benefits from a particular watershed work or activity. The UGs shall be responsible for the operation and maintenance of all the assets created under the project through which they derive direct or indirect individual benefits.
Van Rakshaks
- To take care of plantations on public/ community/ Panchayat lands, the Gram Panchayats may engage local unemployed youth from BPL families as “Van Rakshaks” on honorarium, which will be paid out of the administrative costs prescribed in Annexure-I. The Van Rakshaks and volunteers shall not be treated as employees of the Gram Panchayat/ PIA/ ZP/ State Government/ Government of India. The honorarium of Van Rakshaks may be increased or decreased by the Gram Panchayat keeping in view the survival rate of plantations. The Gram Panchayat shall also ensure usufructs for these Van Rakshaks.
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