Flood Management Authority on the anvil : Soz

New Delhi, Jan 5 (UNI) The Government is proposing to set up an Authority to handle the problems of floods exclusively instead of being an appendage of the Central Water Commission (CWC).

Disclosing the government's intention to make this wing, headed by a Member in the CWC, a full fledged Flood Management Authority having a full fledged set up, Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz said he was not satisfied with the way the flood situation was handled at the apex level.

The task force had recommended the formation of such an authority to deal with the floods in 2004, he told reporters.

About dealing with droughts, Prof Soz said his Ministry was seeking proposals to develop irrigation faciliteis in 31 disticts which had witnessed farmers' suicides for the last many years in the states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka but unfortunately they had not sent their proposals. "I will be speaking to chief ministers to speed up these proposals in the interest of saving lives of affected people", he remarked.

He also said that he would be discussing the Model Bill on water with Chief Ministers of states and hoped it would be acceptable to them.

Prof Soz said the Cabinet had accepted the proposal to make 2007 a 'Water Year' to address water related issues in a focussed manner as the country's economy had taken off wonderfully well for the last many years. However, for this to happen on the ground, the growth needs to take place in the agricultural sector also. He also felt that to bring one crore acres of land under irrigation under 'Bharat Nirman' programme.

He, however, evaded a question on the attempt to grab agricultural land for setting up of Special Economic Zones stating his concern was to increase the agricultural growth.

On the River Linking project, every day something or the other was happening and he would have discussions with CMs of the concerned states on Kalisindh-Parbati link as a first step. Detailed Project Report preparation on various links was also under progress.

About decision to set up Pani Panchayats in 5,000 villages where each village will have a trained water man and water woman to address the problems of water he said the water availability in the country was 1869 billon cubic metres and the country could utilise only about 1123 BCM including 690 BCM of surface water and 433 BCM of replenishable ground water sources.

Among the activities planned during the water year included a meeting of National Water Council chaired by Prime Minister and attended by Chief Ministers and Union Ministers, a National Congress on Ground Water and formal launching of moe crop and income per drop of water.

UNI