The Centre has appointed nodal officers for 150 water stressed districts across the country to take stock of the work under the 'catch the rain' programme, officials said on Thursday.
These officers would visit respective districts coordinating implementation of various rain water harvesting, conservation measures and source sustainability aspects, etc., they said citing an official order in this regard.
Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain (JSA:CTR) - 2023 with the theme "source sustainability for drinking water" was launched by President Droupadi Murmu on March 4.
In this regard, officers of the government of India are hereby appointed as Central Nodal Officers (CNOs) for the identified 150 water stressed districts to take stock of the progress of the works under JSA:CTR-2023 with the directions to visit their districts, said the order issued by the Personnel Ministry.
The Central Nodal Officers will be working with a team of Technical officers (ground water scientists and engineers) apart from the state and district teams, it said.
The water stressed districts are in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu among others.
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The central team consisting of one Central Nodal Officer and one Technical Officer would be conducting two field visits to the districts (pre-monsoon and post-monsoon) during the campaign for interaction with district authorities on Jal Shakti Abhiyan.
They will observe preparatory and planning along with the progress of ongoing and completed works in the districts on water conservation related structures, spring shed development (wherever applicable), intensive afforestation, reuse and recharge structures, renovation of traditional bodies, rejuvenation of rivers/ rivulets and wetland protection (wherever applicable) and other interventions of JSA:CTR-2023 and submit their field report, according to an official note.
In the report, separate articles to be placed on community mobilisation for JSA: CTR-2023 in the district and for "gender sensitive water management" in the districts, it said.
They will check the progress of geo-tagging of water bodies in the districts and its ground-truthing as per revenue records and submit the feedback in the report itself, the report said.
