Chamba, December 22
Finally, the World Bank-aided venture called the Himachal Pradesh Mid Himalayan Watershed Development Project has started bearing fruit and a remote Tapper panchayat of Chamba district has emerged as a trend-setting panchayat in the district paving the way for other areas to replicate the sincere endeavours made by the enthusiastic people of this panchayat.

Initially, the project is being implemented in two blocks, Bhattiyat and Saloon, of the district besides other parts of the state. The project is going to make Himachal Pradesh as the ‘carbon neutral’ state.

Irrigation facilities provided by the project to Kuther, Ghat and Kanyarka villages in Tapper panchayat by harnessing water from small streams, which was going waste earlier, has proved a boon for the local economy.

Six such schemes have already been providing irrigation in the adjoining areas and considering the zeal of the villagers, three more schemes have been proposed in the next two years. The project has also supported and motivated people for growing vegetables and spices on this land, which was either fallow land or rain-fed agriculture.

Amazingly, the pradhan of Tapper panchayat is a lady named Kaushalya Devi whose strenuous efforts led the project to yield pragmatic results by organising joint camps educating and guiding the people about the optimum use of water of streams flowing in the area for boosting their economy.

According to PK Gupta, divisional watershed development officer (DWDO), the project is operational in 46 panchayats of Bhattiyat and Salooni blocks of the district. More than 200 self-help groups and user groups are working in the project for livelihood activities and maintenance of assets created by the project.

An amount of about Rs 3 crore is being spent by the project for watershed development and livelihood activities during the current fiscal year.

During his recent visit, Devesh Kumar, deputy commissioner, Chamba, who inspected the progressing villages of Tapper panchayat, eulogised the perseverance and hard work put in by the villagers in making the project a success in their area under the supervision of DWDO project coordinator Dr AK Singh and facilitators of the project Ravindra, Reena and Nisha. The credit for achieving success of the project goes to Kaushalya.

Devesh assured that no financial handicap would be allowed to come in the way of execution of the project and funds would be provided even if there is no such provision in the project.

He impressed upon the officials working on the project to hold monthly block-level coordination committee meetings of all departments to complement development schemes and also to avoid the duplicity of similar schemes of different departments, adding that progress of these meetings would be reviewed in bi-monthly meetings at the district level.

The project would also explore the possibilities of livelihood plans for dairy, floriculture and storage of vegetables at the larger scale. District-level officers of departments concerned would provide technical input in this respect, the DC emphasised; stressing other departments, particularly block development offices, to replicate this model in other areas too.