Gujarat bags award for watershed mangement project (With Image)

New Delhi, April 21 (IANS) Gujarat has been given the Prime Minister's Award for excellence in public administration 2010-11 here on the Civil Services Day saturday for working the integrated watershed management programme.

The award has gone to Gujarat State Watershed Management Agency (GSWMA), which implements the programme for restoring ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and developing degraded natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover and water.

GSWMA's chief executive Ram Kumar, who received the award from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said that a total area of about 2.13 million hectares was covered under the IWMP in the state with an outlay of Rs.27.69 billion in three batches sanctioned in 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12.

"It has been made mandatory to converge with other schemes and programmes to bridge the fund gap and remove the duplication of works," Kumar said, adding that convergence worth Rs.2.8 billion has been taken up for the projects sanctioned in 2009-10.

According to Kumar, IWMP is the only watershed project which has incorporated livelihood activities to extend benefits to landless and assetless populations living in the project area.