Please note: The venue for the talk is Central Water Commission Auditorium, First Floor, Library Building, R K Puram Sector-1, New Delhi-110066.
About the Talk:
With over 10% of India’s landmass and just 1% of India’s surface water to contend with, Rajasthan is a water scarce state. To compound matters, it lies virtually at the tail-end of interstate rivers, Ravi- Beas or Yamuna or Narmada. The talk will bring out the interstate coordination challenges of getting its due share in lucid detail. At times, the State relies on the benevolence, or rather mercy of the upstream States. Despite advances in modern technology, the releases of water are still wrapped in a cloak of opacity either by design or by neglect. Even the basic data of water flows is not captured on real time basis to share across the concerned States. The advantageous power-relation of the upstream States gets reflected in many ways. Projects for drawing the allocated share keeps getting stalled, and the delays become inordinately long. Even the basic deposit works supposed to be carried out on Feeder canals by such States don’t get the priority they deserve! Even the basic deposit works supposed to be carried out on Feeder canals by such States don’t get the priority they deserve!
We need effective instruments with autonomy and neutrality for interstate coordination to ensure equitable access to water scarce States and downstream States like Rajasthan. The interests of downstream States suffer because of absence of robust interstate institutional mechanisms to coordinate and work with other States.
About the Speaker:
Naveen Mahajan is an IAS officer of 1997 batch belonging to Rajasthan cadre & currently holds the position of Secretary, Water Resources in the state. He has wide and varied administrative experience of handling challenges at the grassroots level. He has been District Collector of six districts for a decade including Ajmer, Jodhpur & Jaipur where he has been pivotal in launching field level initiatives. He has been felicitated by the Prime Minister for his pioneering work in MGNREGA in Ajmer & has been given the State Award as well. With his stints in prestigious Finance & Urban Infrastructure departments, he brings valuable contributions to policy making at the State level.
Poster for the talk can be accessed here.
Please RSVP at treads@cprindia.org.
