Early Times Report
Samba, Mar 23: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) inaugurated a watershed project at Village Kathar in Mohargarh panchayat of district Samba. The project was inaugurated jointly by R K Varma, District Development Commissioner, Samba and Dr. B G Mukhopadhyay, CGM, NABARD in presence of hundreds of villagers from the area. The District Development Manager of NABARD, Surinder Singh gave a detailed brief of the watershed project. He apprised that NABARD had initiated the Capacity Building Phase of this project in May last year and an area of 46 hactares has been treated under the project. Various area treatments like Farm Bunding, Stone Gully Plugging, Staggered Trenching, Horticulture Plantation, Forestry Plantation etc have been completed.All the area treatments aim at water conservation and ground water recharge. He also apprised that a three day exposure visit for the farmers of the area was undertaken to Himachal Pradesh to have an onsite firsthand experience of watershed development.The entire project is implemented by Kristu Jyoti Social Welfare Society in close coordination with Village Watershed Committee. B G Mukhopadhyay, CGM, NABARD stressed that success in implementation of a watershed project depends crucially on the interest shown by the watershed community. The people of the area have demonstrated this during the Capacity Building Phase. He further emphasized that no watershed development project can be successfully implemented unless it is "owned" by the villagers, it is absolutely necessary that all members work together to ensure long term maintenance and sustenance of assets created by the project. |
