New Delhi: Dr. Chandra Shekhar Kumar, Chief Executive Officer of the National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), presided over the National Level Technical Committee meeting organized under the REWARD program at NASC Complex, New Delhi.
National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), MoA&FW organized a National Level Technical Committee (NLTC) meeting under the REWARD (Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development) program on 22 September at NASC Complex, New Delhi.
Speaking at the event, Dr. Kumar emphasized the need to rigorously validate all claims and statements made in the draft National Technical Guidelines using real data collected during the project implementation.
He directed the state governments of Odisha and Karnataka to share their comprehensive watershed data and Decision Support System platforms with all relevant stakeholders to foster transparent and data-driven management.
Dr. A. K. Nayak, DDG (NRM), ICAR said that methodologies adopted to arrive at certain results / conclusions should be clearly written in the NTG and web portals should be developed at the earliest.
Shri Nitin Khade, Joint Secretary (WM), DoLR opined that DPR preparation time may be compressed to 3 months from 6 months in order to get more time for execution of activities. Aspects of convergence of sectors should also be explored and may be included in the NTG.
At the start of the meeting, Dr. Susama Sudhishri presented the action taken report of the last NLTC meeting and also presented the additions made in the 2nd draft of the National Technical Guidelines (NTG).
Dr. Susama requested the State Level Nodal Agencies of Odisha and Karnataka to share the recorded data with NRAA and consortium partners for analysis and preparation of reports, and validation of NTG. The NTG being developed will be used for future generation watershed development in our country under Watershed Development Component- Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana 3.0.