NEW DELHI, Apr 16: A Standing Committee of the Parliament has asked the Government to immediately take steps to restructure the Central Water Commission (CWC).
The panel on Water Resources said the restructuring was needed in view of the significant function of the apex body of the Ministry of Water Resources, particularly in light of its role in monitoring of irrigation projects under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP).
It also said that a panel, headed by Dr Mihir Shah in his report on ‘Restructuring of CWC and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB)’, had observed that a paradigm shift was required in both surface and ground water.
New national challenges in the 21st Century demanded major reforms in the CWC and CGWB, it said. Besides, it also said that the CWC and CGWB suffers from a lack of professionals from a large number of disciplines. Besides, several State Governments have testified that a huge delay in techno-economic appraisal by CWC has become a matter of concern.
The Ministry also informed the Parliament panel that recommendations of the Dr Mihir Shah’s report were under consideration.
The panel said that the Ministry had informed it that 100 per cent monitoring of the ongoing Major and Minimum Irrigation (MMI) projects was to be undertaken by the CWC. However, due to large number of Minor Irrigation (MI) and Repair, Renovation and Restoration (RRR) schemes, the monitoring of all ongoing schemes by CWC was not possible.
As on March 31, 2015 there were 149 ongoing MMI projects under the AIBP, the Parliament Committee was informed. The Ministry had also informed the panel that due to limited availability of manpower with the CWC, it was necessary to outsource monitoring through experienced firms. (UNI)
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