Zilla Parishad, Latur

To take care of plantations on public/ community/ Panchayat lands, the Gram Panchayats may engage local unemployed youth from BPL families as “Van Rakshaks” on honorarium, which will be paid out of the administrative costs prescribed in Annexure-I. The Van Rakshaks and volunteers shall not be treated as employees of the Gram Panchayat/ PIA/ ZP/ State Government/ Government of India. The honorarium of Van Rakshaks may be increased or decreased by the Gram Panchayat keeping in view the survival rate of plantations. The Gram Panchayat shall also ensure usufructs for these Van Rakshaks.

Community Mobilization and Training are pre-requisites for initiating development work in watershed projects. Prior sensitization and orientation training on Watershed Project Management should be imparted to all concerned functionaries and elected representatives at the district, block and village levels before they assume their responsibilities. In case ZP/ DRDA/ Line department is the PIA, it may involve NGOs for community mobilization and training. For this, approval of ZP/DRDA should be taken.

A meeting of the Gram Sabha/ Ward Sabha shall be convened for preparation of the Action Plan/ Watershed Treatment Plan, on the basis of the information generated from the benchmark survey of the watershed areas and detailed PRA exercises. After general discussion, the Gram Panchayat will prepare a detailed Action Plan/ Treatment Plan for integrated development of the watershed area under the guidance of the WDT and submit the same to the PIA. The WDT should utilize various thematic maps relating to land and water resources development in the preparation and finalization of the Action Plan/ Watershed Treatment Plan. This Action Plan shall necessarily mention the clear demarcation of the watershed with specific details of survey numbers, ownership details and a map depicting the location of proposed work/activities. The PIA, after careful scrutiny, shall submit the Action Plan for Watershed Development for approval of the ZP/DRDA. The approved plan shall be the basis for release of funds, monitoring, review, evaluation etc. by the ZP/DRDA, State Government and Central Government. The Action Plan/Watershed Treatment Plan should be prepared for all the arable and non-arable land including degraded forestlands, government and community lands and private lands. The items, inter-alia, that can be included in the Action Plan/Watershed Treatment Plan are:

Development of small water harvesting structures such as low-cost farm ponds, nalla bunds, check-dams, percolation tanks and other ground water recharge measures.

Renovation and augmentation of water sources, desiltation of village tanks for drinking water/irrigation/fisheries development.

Fisheries development in village ponds/tanks, farm ponds etc.

Afforestation including block plantations, agro-forestry and horticultural development, shelterbelt plantations, sand dune stabilization, etc.

Pasture development either by itself or in conjunction with plantations.

Land Development including in-situ soil and moisture conservation measures like contour and graded bunds fortified by plantation, bench terracing in hilly terrain, nursery raising for fodder, timber, fuel wood, horticulture and non-timber forest product species.

Drainage line treatment with a combination of vegetative and engineering structures.

Repair, restoration and up-gradation of existing common property assets and structures in the watershed to obtain optimum & sustained benefits from previous public investments.

Crop demonstrations for popularizing new crops/varieties or innovative management practices.

Promotion and propagation of non-conventional energy saving devices, energy conservation measures, bio fuel plantations etc.

Transparency under the Programme would be promoted by various agencies as follows:

Preparation of the Action Plan for the watershed by the Gram Panchayat in consultation with Self-Help Groups/User Groups with the assistance of WDT members.

Approval of the Action Plan at the open meetings of the Gram Sabha.

Display of approved Action Plan on a Notice Board at the Gram Panchayat Office, Village Community Hall and such other community buildings.

Review of physical and financial progress of work during implementation phase through periodical meetings of the Gram Sabha.

Payment to labourers directly and through cheques wherever possible.

UP

1	Watersheds where People’s participation is assured through contribution of labour, cash, material etc. for its development as well as for the operation and maintenance of the assets created.
2	Watershed areas having acute shortage of drinking water.
3	Watersheds having large population of scheduled castes/scheduled tribes dependent on it.
4	Watershed having a preponderance of non-forest wastelands/degraded lands.
5	Watersheds having preponderance of common lands.
6	Watersheds where actual wages are significantly lower than the minimum wages.
7	Watershed which is contiguous to another watershed that has already been developed/ treated.
8	Watershed area may be of an average size of 500 hectares, preferably covering an entire village. However, if on actual survey, a watershed is found to have less or more area, the total area may be taken up for development as a project. In case a watershed covers two or more villages, it should be divided into village-wise sub-watersheds confined to the designated villages. Care should be taken to treat all the sub-watersheds simultaneously.

1	At the district level, ZP/DRDA shall be the nodal authority for implementation of all the area development programmes under the supervision and guidance of the State Government and the Government of India. It shall approve the selection of watersheds, the appointment of Project Implementation Agencies, approve the action plan/treatment plan of the projects etc. The CEO (ZP)/PD(DRDA) shall maintain the accounts of watershed projects and shall sign all statutory papers such as Utilization Certificates (UCs), Audited Statements of Accounts, Progress Reports, Bonds etc.
2	The ZP/DRDA will be entitled to recover funds from any institution/ organization/ individual and take appropriate action under law if the project is not properly implemented or funds are misutilised or not spent as per these Guidelines.
3	At the field level, the Gram Panchayats shall implement the projects under the overall supervision and guidance of Project Implementation Agencies (PIAs). An intermediate Panchayat may be the PIA for all the projects sanctioned to a particular Block/Taluka. In case, these Panchayats are not adequately empowered, then the ZP can either act as PIA itself or may appoint a suitable Line Department like Agriculture, Forestry/Social Forestry, Soil Conservation etc. or an Agency of the State Government/ University/ Institute as PIA. Failing these options, the ZP/DRDA may consider appointing a reputed Non-Government Organization (NGO) in the district with adequate experience and expertise in the implementation of watershed projects or related area development works as the PIA after thoroughly checking its credentials. Nonetheless, the State Governments should endeavor to empower the PRIs and build their capacities so that they may ultimately be in a position to take up the responsibility of independently implementing the watershed development projects as PIAs. An NGO-PIA shall normally be assigned 10-12 watershed projects covering an area ranging from 5,000-6,000 hectares. However, in exceptional and deserving cases, an NGO-PIA may be assigned a maximum of 12,000 hectares at a time including ongoing projects in all the Programmes of similar nature in a district and a maximum of 25,000 hectares in the State.
4	An NGO is eligible for selection as PIA only if it has been active in the field of watershed development or any similar area developmental activities in rural areas for some years. The quantum of funds handled by an agency in the last 3 years may be taken into account for their selection as PIA by the ZP/DRDA. The NGOs blacklisted by CAPART or other Departments of State Government and Government of India should not be appointed as PIA.
5	The Project Implementation Agency (PIA) will provide necessary technical guidance to the Gram Panchayat for preparation of development plans for the watershed through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) exercise, undertake community organization and training for the village communities, supervise watershed development activities, inspect and authenticate project accounts, encourage adoption of low cost technologies and build upon indigenous technical knowledge, monitor and review the overall project implementation and set up institutional arrangements for post-project operation and maintenance and further development of the assets created during the project period.
6	The ZP/DRDA shall, normally, be the authority competent to decide on the suitability or otherwise of the Project Implementation Agency (PIA) for taking up projects under the watershed development programmes. However, the State Government may consider changing the PIA in any of the projects on specific grounds with prior concurrence of the Department of Land Resources, Govt. of India.
7	Each PIA shall carry out its duties through a multi-disciplinary team designated as the Watershed Development Team (WDT). Each WDT should have at least four members one each from the disciplines of forestry/plant sciences, animal sciences, civil/agricultural engineering and social sciences. At least one member of the WDT should be a woman. Preferable qualification for a WDT member should be a professional degree. However, the qualification can be relaxed by the ZP/DRDA in deserving cases keeping in view the practical field experience of the candidate in the relevant discipline. One of the WDT members shall be designated as the Project Leader. The PIA will be at liberty to either earmark its own staff exclusively for this work, or engage fresh candidates including retired personnel, or take people on deputation from government or other organizations. The WDT shall be located at the PIA/Block headquarters/any other town nearest to the cluster of selected villages. Honorarium to the WDT members shall be paid out of the administrative costs as indicated in Annexure-I.
8	In order to avoid the tendency for over-emphasis on certain activities related to the speciality of the PIA selected, particularly in the case of Line Departments like Agriculture, Soil Conservation, Forestry etc., the ZP/DRDA should ensure that subject matter specialists from various Line Departments at the district and block levels are involved in the preparation of the plans.
9	Gram Panchayats will execute the works under the guidance and control of the Gram Sabha. In States where there are Ward Sabhas (Palli Sabhas etc.) and the area to be treated is within that Ward, the Ward Sabha may perform the duties of the Gram Sabha.
10	In 6th Schedule areas, where traditional Village Councils are functioning instead of Gram Panchayats, these Councils may be assigned the responsibilities of the Gram Panchayats/Gram Sabhas. In cases, where there is neither a Gram Panchayat nor the traditional Village Council, the existing provisions of Guidelines (2001) would apply.
11	The Gram Panchayat shall carry out the day-to-day activities of the project and will be responsible for coordination and liaison with the Watershed Development Team and the ZP/DRDA to ensure smooth implementation of the project. It shall be responsible for undertaking watershed development works and to make payments for the same.
12	The Gram Panchayat shall maintain a separate account for the watershed project and all receipts from ZP/DRDA will be credited to this account. This account shall be operated jointly by the Gram Panchayat Secretary and Gram Panchayat Chairman. The Gram Panchayat Secretary will be responsible for convening meetings of the Gram Panchayat and Gram Sabha and for carrying out all their decisions.He will maintain all the records and accounts of project activities. If required, the Gram Panchayat may appoint two or three volunteers to provide assistance to the Gram Panchayat Secretary in the implementation of activities as per the action plan/treatment plan of the watershed project. The volunteers will be paid honorarium as per Annexure-I.