Imphal, May 12, 2017 (DIPR): A one day workshop on Mission Water Conservation-Natural Resource Management under MGNREGS within the overall framework of PMKSY was held at Classic Hotel today .The workshop was organised by Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department, Government of Manipur with the main aim of facilitating interdepartmental convergences centre around MGNREGS.
Chief Secretary Shri O. Nabakishore Singh; Chief Conservator of Forests, Government of Manipur, Shri D.J. Anand; Undersecretary, MGNREGA Shri Rajeev Sharma;Deputy Secretary(RD & PR) Smt. Valentina Arambam and Secretary(RD&PR), Shri Sumant Singh attended the workshop as Chief Guest ,Guests of Honour & President respectively.
Shri Pankaj Shrikant Duberkar,Project Executive Alternative Technologies, MGNREGA Division,MORD,Government of India and Shri Sonal Kulshrestha, MORD briefed the participants of the workshop as resource persons.
Delivering the welcome address, Shri Sumant Singh stated that the workshop has been in the pipeline for quite a long time and that all departments concerned with taking up the task of mission water conservation are invited. Talking about the whole paradigm change of programme implementation in the current state in the country, he said, “ MNREGA is supposed to provide 100 days employment including supplying low-cost toilet at about Rs. 20,000. All these programmes under MNREGA talk to each other in terms of their aims, objectives & structure but the implementers of these programmes don’t talk to each other: not in a literal but in a metaphoric sense. Stand Alone Programmes are all implemented in isolation and are linear in nature. Madhya Pradesh has done wonderful work in converging NREGA programme and PMGSY. It had multiplicative non-linear impact.” He further said, “The whole idea of today’s workshop is to integrate and think i.e. monitoring of funds in an integrative way.”
Focussing on two main points: convergence of the schemes and water conservation, Rajeev Sharma said that while implementing one particular scheme, we should consider the benefits of other schemes as well. He stated that we should consider all aspects like-housing , pools, irrigation, water conservation, water recharge , toilet, Swach Bharat Abhiyan while planning on one specific scheme. There is a constant need to shift our approach from Crisis Management to Resources Management in order to prevent crisis in future. “Out of all the 100 National Resource Management projects which are allowed in the MGNREGA,71 pertains to water conservation or water preservation or management only like ground water recharge, flood protection, afforestation, rain-water harvesting, soil and moisture conservation etc.”
Highlighting that Life is water and Water is life, D.J.Anand said that, human life is made of 70 % water and that the main reason for food security in the world is not man but water.
Questioning the actual implementation of water conservation measures at the ground level in the State, Chief Guest Shri O. Nabakishore Singh said that efforts for the task at hand should start at the grassroots level by adopting innovative methods like digging a pond even in the hills if the public are to witness a long-lasting change. He said that he would like to appeal the elected people to adopt new techniques for water management on a quite aggressive and different line.
Giving the vote of thanks, Smt. Valentina Arambam thanked all dignitaries present today for throwing light on the issue of mission water conservation and working hard persistently to realise the set targets and objectives of natural resource management under MGNREGS in the State.
Resource person of the workshop, Shri Pankaj Shrikant Duberkar gave a detailed presentation to the participants on the topic “Works under Convergence with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA)” followed by another technical session from Shri Sonal Kulshrestha.
State Nodal Officer, PMKSY, N Sanatomba Singh and concerned staffs of RD & PR of all the districts took part in the one day workshop. (DIPR)
