March 14, 2002

    The Ministry of Rural Development has set up a Task Force to encourage Public and Private partnership in Wastelands development programmes. The Task Force will develop a mechanism for participation of Credit Institutions in funding these programmes.

    The Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, will head the nine members Task Force. Other members of the Task Force are –Chief Executive Officer, Indian Banks Association, Representatives from RBI and NABARD, Commissioner rural development, Andhra Pradesh, Secretary rural development, Madhya Pradesh, Additional Secretary (Land Resources), Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor (AS &FA) and Joint Secretary (Wastelands Development) of the Ministry.

    The Task Force will identify lead activities and appropriate technologies in a regionally differentiated manner as also the requisite policy environment that needs to be put in place to encourage and promote corporate involvement in wastelands development through the mobilisation of additional resource support. In case of watershed development projects, the Task Force will sensitise the borrowers about financial discipline and responsibility towards repayment. The Task Force will interact with the State Governments, Financial Institutions, and Representatives of Organisations of Industry and Commerce and Experts in the field. The Task Force will submit its report within 3 months.

    The Ministry of Rural Development has been implementing number of programmes, such as Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP), Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP) and Desert Development Programme (DDP) for treatment/development of wastelands/degraded lands. There are varying estimates of the extent of area suffering from problems of soil health, land degradation and productivity ranging between 38.40 to 147 million hectares.

    The setting up of the Task Force follows a Consultation Session organised with Reserve Bank of India (RBI), National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and other financial institutions on 28^th of January 2002.