CURTAIN RAISER FUNCTION OF WATER RESOURCES DAY, 1999 AND THE WORLD WATER DAY CELEBRATIONS INAUGURATED BY SHRI SOMPAL     The Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Water Resources Shri Sompal has said that water as a resource is under tremendous pressure due to exponential population growth, rapid urbanisation and industrialization and necessity of environmental conservation.

    Concerted efforts are called for from all sections of the society to minimize the adverse impact of human activity on the quality of freshwater resources. A long-term perspective planning of water resources is imperative to meet various competing demands of water on sustainable basis.

    The Minister added that water is the most precious natural resource and is one of the five basic elements of nature the 'punch bhutas' - that occupy an eminent place in Indian ethos. Its beneficial use is a sine qua non, not only for the economic development of the country but for meeting the basic needs of life like drinking water and growing food requirements. The National

    Water Policy, adopted by Govt. of India in 1987, recognizes water as a scarce and precious natural resource to be planned, developed and conserved on an integrated and environmentally sound basis.

    Shri Sompal visualised that the population of the country is projected to reach about 1.6 billion by the year 2050. Therefore, we not only have to fully harness water resources available to us but also augment the availability by transferring water from surplus river basins to water short basins.

    The Minister further stated that most of the rural areas may also face drinking water shortage as the ground water resources may get depleted unless preserved exclusively for drinking water purposes. With the visible constraints in increasing the culturable land in the country which has stagnated at around 142 million hectare, the only natural solution before us is to increase the agricultural yield per unit area of land. While focussing on increased irrigation potential, one has to develop a sustainable water utilisation system to satisfy various end-users. Irrigated agriculture which continues to be the bulk consumer of water, has to optimise the water use by adopting water saving technologies like drip irrigation and biotechnology to develop plants that would stand water-stress and water salinity.

    Shri Sompal stressed that the need of the hour is to create public awareness on such issues and evolve suitable measures to tackle them with their active involvement and cooperation.

    The Minister called for a mass campaign for conserving water resources. An irrigation scheme to cater to 100 districts to double farm production would be launched this year to reap benefits within three years. He favoured more minor irrigation schemes than medium and major irrigation schemes which were cost-intensive.

    The Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, in a message on the occasion said "Ensuring the availability of adequate quality and quantity of water to all consumers posed technological and financial challenge, with demand for water from households, farmers and industries on a rapid rise along with the Indian Economy.

    Shri Z. Hasan, Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources and other experts participating in the World Water Day and the Water Resources Day emphasised the need for adopting measures to conserve water and enacting a comprehensive legislation to check over-exploitation of ground water resources. With over 1.2 billion people in developing countries having no access to safe drinking water, 4 million children dying of water-borne diseases and billions of people with no adequate water and sanitation facilities, the crisis had assumed a global proportion, the experts said.

    Organised under the auspices of the Indian Water Resources Society, Ministry of Water Resources and several other related bodies besides the United Nations System in India, the meeting discussed the theme `Water vision : 2050',which enumerated various strategies to face challenges in the next mellinium in the water sector.

    Dr. Brenda Gael Mcsweeney, United Nations Resident Coordinator presided over the function. Theme paper on 'Water Vision': 2050' was introduced by Dr. M.S. Reddy, President, I.W.R.S. Representatives of UNESCO , UNICEF, UNDP, WHO and various renowned experts, policy-makers, planners and NGOs also addressed the function, which was followed by presentation of papers and a question-answer session.
 
 

    The Deputy Director of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Dr. A.K. Kamra told visiting media persons in Pune that this being the unanimous decision of the conference, the focus should be shifted to enhancing the scientific activities on long term changes and trends in the atmosphere in this region. He said it was strongly recommended to form a regional Assessment Panel (atmospheric chemistry) for this region under some existing international scientific umbrella.

    Dr. Gufran Beig, who was the Convenor of the International Workshop said, this Panel may propose a powerful computing facility in this region for seeking funding support, to international bodies. The IITM, Pune, may be a center point for such activity, he said. The workshop lauded the initiatives taken by Indian scientists in organising it and ending it with a great success.

    Several scientific organisations have identified Southeast Asia as the priority region in the world where Earth's large moist tropical forests and largest land to ocean sediments flows exist. This region offers a microcosm of many of the institutional forces that have impact on human and environment relations in the world today. The amount of data collected on several important atmospheric parameters in this region would be of great significance to the world scientific community, to understand the long term changes and trends and their impact on the climate.

    The workshop has greatly helped in enhancing capacity building in this region and created greater awareness to regional scientists by providing the opportunity to present their results and getting involved in interactive discussions with international experts on the subject. For stronger cooperation it was decided to bridge gaps between Tropospheric - Stratospheric coupling activities and between Stratospheric - Mesospheric - lower Thermospheric activities. For this, it was decided to begin with a new satellite system experiment, cutting across boundaries with respect to atmospheric heights. It was also strongly felt that common public should be made aware of the man-made perturbations affecting the upper part of the atmosphere and resulting impact on human being.
 
 

    The cumulative production of fertilizers since April-February 1999 was 96.41 lakh tonnes of nitrogen as against the target of 97.58 lakh tonnes and 27.74 lakh tonnes of phosphate as against the target of 27.61 lakh tonnes. The cumulative production in the corresponding period last year was 91.48 lakh tonnes of nitrogen and 27.11 lakh tonnes of phosphate.

    Capacity utilisation in February 1999 was 96.4% for nitrogen and 88.7% for phosphate.

    The availability of urea during February 1999 has been satisfactory throughout the country. 14.90 lakh tonnes of urea was despatched to the States during the month against the target of 16.00 lakh tonnes. The despatches were short of the target because of lower production than the target by Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd. (FACT), Krishak Bharati Cooperative Ltd. (KRIBHCO), Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd. (RCF), Thal and Zuari Industries Ltd. (ZIL). Despite this, cumulative availability of urea for Rabi season by the end of February 1999 has been 108.71 lakh tonnes as compared to 109.53 lakh tonnes during the corresponding period of previous year. This constitutes 94% of the estimated requirement of 115.77 lakh tonnes for the season.

    The cumulative availability of 33.00 lakh tonnes of DAP and 16.44 lakh tonnes MOP for Rabi season by the end of February 1999 has been achieved. This is higher by 27% for DAP and 43% for MOP over the availability during the corresponding period of the previous year. The cumulative sales of DAP and MOP upto 15^th February 1999 has been 24.36 lakh tonnes and 12.10 lakh tonnes, respectively. Due to continuing buoyancy in indigenous production of DAP and higher level of imports during Rabi 1998-99 (if compared to Rabi 1997-98), the opening stock as on 1.4.1999 is estimated to be more than 10 lakh tonnes.

    During the month under review, there have been no further imports of urea. Cumulative deliveries of urea were 5.57 lakh tonnes during April-February 1999. Against 2 lakh tonnes of additional import authorisation to meet the requirement of Kharif 1999, 1 lakh ton has been contracted. Of this, 0.75 lakh tonnes is expected to arrive during March, 1999.

    1.42 lakh tonnes of imported DAP and 2.38 lakh tonnes of MOP landed during February 1999. Cumulative arrivals of DAP & MOP during April-February 1999 have been 20.42 lakh tonnes and 24.35 lakh tonnes, respectively. During the remaining period of Rabi 1998-99, another 0.40 lakh tonnes of DAP and 1.03 lakh tonnes of MOP are expected to arrive.

    The average daily loading of fertilizers by rail during February 1999 was 3537 equivalent BG wagons per day as against 3086 BG wagons per day in the corresponding period of last year.
 
 

    Jawahar Rozgar Yojana is being restructured and streamlined and will henceforth be known as Gram Samridhi Yojana(GSY). GSY will be confined to the creation of rural infrastructure only at the village level and therefore, the entire fund will be released to the Gram Panchayats. While emphasis on labour-intensive works will continue, the 60:40 wage-material ratio will be relaxed suitably. It has been decided to empower the panchayats to take up works upto Rs. 20,000 by themselves. The maintenance expenditure has also been increased from 10% to 15%.

    Employment assurance Scheme would continue as the single Wage-Employment programme to be implemented at the district/block levels throughout the country. 70% of the funds flowing to the districts would be allocated to the blocks and 30% reserved at the district level to be utilised in areas of distress. Thereafter, the district authorities could take up works in any block wherever there is demand for work. The selection of works would be made by Zilla Parishads after due consultations with MPs of that area. In the absence of Elected Bodies, a Committee comprising of local MPs and MLAs and other elected representatives would be constituted for selection of works.

    District Rural Development Agencies(DRDAs) will be provided administrative support by a separate budget head of DRDA Administration. Simultaneously, it is proposed to bring in greater professionalisation of the DRDAs through proper staffing pattern, selection of suitable personnel, their training as well as suitable personnel policies. The funding pattern of all the programmes of the Department of Rural Employment & Poverty Alleviation will be 75:25 instead of the present pattern of 80:20 / 50:50 / 100:0 for different programmes.

    An Action Plan for Rural Housing for construction of additional 13 lakh houses in rural areas has been prepared in consultation with the Planning Commission. The action Plan for Rural Housing suggests a series of initiatives, which have now been approved by the Government and will go on stream immediately. These initiatives include setting up of National Rural Housing and Habitat Mission, a new Credit-cum-Subsidy Scheme, provision of upgradation under Indira Awas Yojana, setting up of Rural Building Centres(Nirmithi Kendras), higher equity support to HUDCO for improving outreach of housing finance in rural areas and Innovative Scheme for Rural Housing and Habitat Development.

    The present allocation criteria of funds under Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programmes(ARWSP) to the States based on normative criteria will be replaced with a need based approach to achieve the objectives of coverage within the time frame set up by the National Agenda for Governance of the Government. The changed allocation criteria would ensure that the States having large number of ‘Not Covered’ and ‘Quality Affected’ habitations and/or in drought prone, desert regions and hard rock areas get more allocation than the States well endowed with water resources. The current supply-driven, centrally maintained non-people participating rural water supply programme will be gradually replaced by a community based demand driven rural water supply programme. 20% of the annual outlay under ARWSP will be earmarked for providing incentives to states which implement projects to institutionalise community based rural water supply system by incorporating the following three basic principles for ensuring people'’ participation -–Adoption of a demand-responsive and adaptable approach, that of provider to facilitator of services; Partial capital cost sharing either in cash or kind; 100% responsibility of O&M by users.

    Government have taken a decision to declare the year 1999-2000 as the Year of the Gram Sabha with the objective to quicken the dencentralisation. Shri Baba Gouda Patil has written to the Chief Ministers of all States requesting them to empower the Gram Sabha with a comprehensive package including giving them appropriate finances, powers and authority.
 
 

    Shri Jethmalani said that hereafter he would be meeting the Member States individually to sort out bilateral problems within NCR so that the meeting of the NCRPB is businesslike.

    In today’s meeting, the Railway Minister, Shri Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Haryana Choudhary Bansi Lal, Lt. Governor of Delhi Shri Vijay Kapoor, Urban Development Ministers of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh took part. The meeting resolved to expand the existing areas of 30,242 square kilometers of NCR by additional 24711 square kilometers so as to ensure decongestion of the National Capital Territory of Delhi and equitable dispersal of its population, industries, trade and commercial activities in the Region.

    The Board also reviewed the performance of regional plan 2001 for NCR and decided to go ahead with preparation of regional plan 2021 for NCR. Haryana and Delhi were requested to forward their regional sub-plan for NCR. Other Members have already forwarded their regional sub-plan.

    The Ministers of Urban Development of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh led by the Chief Minister of Haryana were critical of the very concept of NCRPB for its failure to ensure equitable and balanced development of the Region. They were also reticent to lower their tax rates to bring them on par with Delhi tax structure on the grounds of reduction in their revenues. The Haryana Chief Minister was also reticent to provide drinking water supply to Delhi notwithstanding the judgement of the Supreme Court of India that drinking water supply would get precedence over agriculture water. The Members endorsed unanimously the projection by Rail India Technical and Economic Services Ltd. (RITES) on integration of rail network for a fast and rapid rail transit system in the NCR. The estimated cost of integrated rail link of the NCR has been projected at Rs.5144 crores. Speaking on the occasion, the Railway Minister, Shri Nitish Kumar called for joint funding by the Government of India, the concerned Member States in an equity for augmentation and increasing the rail network in the NCR. His views were endorsed by the Member States. The Ministry of Power agreed to strengthen power distribution in the NCR by Northern Region Power Board. As for common telephone and economic zone the NCRB agreed to improve common resource base of the Region notwithstanding the apprehensions of Haryana , Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

    The Minister for Urban Affairs and Employment, Shri Jethmalani, giving an overview of NCRB said that it was set up to evolve the spirit of cooperation, partnership and coordination among the Member States for an integrated all round development of the NCR. The Minister of State for Urban Affairs and Employment Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, who also spoke on the occasion, said that all Member States of NCR should function amidst cooperation and be complimentary to each other for a balanced growth and prosperity of NCR.

    The NCRPB was set up in 1985 by an Act of Parliament. Its primary objective has been to work for equitable, integrated and balanced development of NCR and make the National Capital Region sustainable for human habitat.
 
 

    The Dy. Chairman, called upon the planners to also look into the problem of under-employment increasing casualization, emergence of low productivity jobs and under utilization of educated persons., He said the country needs a comprehensive data base to focus on specific segments such as women and other disadvantaged groups.

    Shri K.C. Pant announced that the Planning Commission had decided to support preparation of State level human development schemes. He said poverty alleviation was a major conern for the nation but added that employment creation alone would not alleviate poverty. He said other initiatives were also required to ensure equitable access to the benefits which resulted from economic growth. Human development has to be an area of fundamental concern for the policy planners. He said concern for human development has been adequately reflected in the Ninth plan.

    Expressing concern regarding the qualilty of life of over 92 per cent workers in agriculture and informal sectors, Shri Pant asserted that due attention needs to be given to studies on decentralized agricultural development and implications of agricultural development on employment and poverty at the district level. He said with this objective in mid the Ninth Plan has emphasised on regionally differentiated strategies of agriculture development.

    The Dy. Chairman, Planning Commission, called for reforms and development of civil administration system consistent with the changing responsibilities for public provision of social and economic services. He said specific studies were needed to analyze organisational structure at Panchayati Raj Institutional level and to improve civil administration.

    On the empowerment of women, shri Pant called for an action in the political, economic and social spheres. He said the process of empowerment of women in the political sphere had already been initiated with resrvation of women representation at the PRI level.

    Speaking on the occasion Shri Ahoka Chandra, Director, IAMR, said efforts were on to integrate the Institute with the policy formulation at Planning Commission. Two groups on employment estimates and unemployment and poverty relationship working closely in Planning Commission were a step in this direction. The Union Minister for Agriculture, Shri Som pal, was also present at the meeting.
 
 

• Enhance awareness and appreciation of potential implications of year 2000 problem (Y2K)
• Review Y2K preparedness status of critical sectors.
• Discuss initiatives undertaken by other nations.
• Suggest strategies and roadmap for effective and speedy implementaiton of Y2K complaint solutions.
• Facilitation of interaction between Government offices, PSUs and Y2K solutions vendors.
• Pave way for a forum for addressing common concerns related to Y2K problem, such as standards, methodologies etc.
• Share experience of Government Departments and PSUs, who have already done work towards Y2K compliance.

    The Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Shsri K.C. Pant will inaugurate the Seminar and Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Chairman of Y2K Action Force and member, Planning Commission besides other prominent experts will attend the seminar.
 
 

    The President of India, Shri K.R.Narayanan in his message, has called upon the people to rededicate themselves to the control of tuberculosis as also of its roots, poverty, poor nutrition, over-crowding and ignorance.

    The Prime Minster, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee has called upon the people to intensify their struggle against T.B. by completely eliminating it from the country.

    The Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Shri Dalit Ezhilmalai has said that the need of the hour is to pool the efforts from all quarters - public, private or voluntary associations, to root out this disease once for all.
 
 

    The Minister was addressing the valedictory function of the National Federation of Dalit Women here today.
 
 

    The Director of the NCPUL, Dr. Hamidullah Bhat spoke of the Council's programme of making available modern scientific and technological knowledge in Urdu. In order to give a professional orientation, to Urdu the Council has already set up 32 computer centres in 12 states covering 32 districts in the current financial year. 18 more would come up in the next year. It is also launching a one year diploma course in computer application and DTP in Urdu from April this year..