Gujarat State Watershed Management Agency (GSWMA) has been conferred Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration for the year 2010-11 for the initiative entitled “Participatory Watershed Management Programme”. The award was received today by Shri Ram Kumar, Chief Executive Officer of GSWMA from Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on the occasion of Civil Service Day held in New Delhi.

GSWMA is the nodal agency to implement Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) across Gujarat state. The main aims of the IWMP are to restore the ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and developing degraded natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover and water. The outcomes proposed are prevention of soil run-off, regeneration of natural vegetation, rain water harvesting and recharging of the ground water table. This is expected to enable multi-cropping and the introduction of diverse agro-based activities, which help to provide sustainable livelihoods to the people residing in the watershed area.

Shri Ram Kumar, Chief Executive Officer of GSWMA after receiving the award on behalf of Gujarat Government said that right from the planning phase of the project, scientific tools have been used to ensure accuracy and efficiency. The approach followed for planning involves: i) creation, development and management of geo-spatial data base depicting present conditions of land, water and vegetation with respect to watershed under different ownerships at village level, ii) compatible socio-economic aspects and their analysis, iii) historical perspective land-water treatment of the area. The tool developed by the Gujarat State Watershed Management Agency has been widely appreciated at National level in multiple fora.

He further said that total 21.34 Lac Ha. Area with an outlay of 2769.72 crores has been covered under IWMP for the implementation that includes 3 batches sanctioned in the year 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 respectively. For monitoring...