NEW DELHI: Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday launched a national-level mass outreach campaign ‘Watershed Yatra‘. Chouhan launched the yatra to generate people’s participation and create awareness about the watershed development activities carried out under Watershed Development Component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (WDC-PMKSY 2.0).
A total of about 800 gram panchayats and more than 1 lakh people participated in the launch programme held in a hybrid mode.
Speaking at the launch, Chouhan emphasised the importance of soil and water conservation for the present and future needs of the people and community participation in the effective and successful implementation of WDC PMKSY Projects across the country.
He also opined that the Yatra will provide a platform for achieving “Community Driven Approach”, galvanise the implementation machinery at field level and highlights the importance of sustainable management of natural resources for improving agriculture productivity, livelihoods, and the environment.
Chouhan also announced ‘Watershed – Janbhagidari Pratiyogita’ under WDC-PMKSY 2.0 for the years 2025 and 2026, and said it is a unique model based on the principles of community-led watershed management, incorporating ‘Public-Private-People Partnership (4Ps)’.
Under this, the works done in the project areas through government funding and public participation will be evaluated at the state level and the projects doing excellent and remarkable work will be given an additional reward of Rs 20 lakh per project.
A total provision of Rs 70.80 crore has been made for this, which will benefit 177 projects every year. The evaluation of projects for this year’s competition will be done in the month of April.
The Watershed Yatra will consist of van movements for around 60-90 days across 805 projects, which cover 6673 GPs (13587 villages) in 26 states and 2 UTs. Under the activity of Watershed ki Panchayat, talk by experts about sustainable soil and water management practices will be organised and around 8,000 individuals having contributed in implementation of WDC-PMKSY works in different Project Areas will be honoured.
The department has developed a Learning Management System (LMS) on watershed development and hosted on DoLR’s website, which has also been linked to MY Bharat portal for further engagement of youth. A certificate will be issued to participating youths, which will motivate them to participate in Shramdaan activities.
A mega event for Watershed Yatra has been created on ‘MY Bharat portal’ to connect with and involve Youths across the country. This will help in mobilizing youth volunteers for activities like Shramdan, strengthening community participation in watershed projects and will help in better implementation of WDC-PMKSY 2.0 scheme. This will also help in creating a community cadre of watershed workers and leaders.
