In News: The third meeting of the National Level Steering Committee (NLSC) of the Atal Bhujal Yojana was held at New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Department of Water Resources, RD & GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti.
This scheme is bringing change in Ground Water Management.
Atal Bhujal Yojana (ATAL JAL):
Aim:
To bring in behavioural changes in the community, from the prevailing attitude of consumption to conservation & smart water management.
Creation of awareness among the general public about the program objectives
Creation of an enabling environment for scheme implementation at various levels through information, education and communication (IEC)
The thrust of the campaign is at the Gram Panchayat(GP) level, where communication tools such as nukkadnataks (street plays), audio-visual clips, wall-writing, display boards, pamphlets and cable TV are being extensively used.
About:
Central Sector Scheme
Started in 2020 in 8220 water stressed Gram Panchayats of 229 administrative blocks/Talukas in 80 districts of seven States, viz. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh for five year period (2020-25).
Interventions include Water Security Plans (WSPs).
The sustainability of the drinking water sources are to be given utmost priority while taking up interventions under this Scheme.
Further, since incentive money is an untied fund, it can be used for undertaking pilot projects in any of the Atal Jal Gram Panchayat in order to sustain ground water.
Since communities are at the forefront in this scheme, importance of capacity building of the communities was also emphasized.
One of the main challenges was low convergenceby the States as compared to what was expected.
