GS PAPER II: Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections of the population by the Centre and States and the Performance of these Schemes; Mechanisms, Laws, Institutions and Bodies constituted for the Protection and Betterment of these Vulnerable Sections.

Context: Minister of State for Jal Shakti, has written to all MPs, both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, to support the ongoing “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch The Rain” campaign in their respective constituencies and states.

• The Abhiyan theme is - “Catch the Rain where it falls, when it falls’.
• Aim: The campaign aims at tapping rainwater by constructing artificial recharge structures, revitalizing existing ponds and water bodies, creating new water bodies, provisioning check dams, rejuvenating wetlands and rivers before the onset of monsoon.
• It is also planned to create a data-base of all water bodies in the country by geo tagging them and using this data to create scientific and data-based district level water conservation plans.
• Jal Shakti Abhiyan-2 will covers all rural and urban areas of all districts of the country, unlike the Jal Shakti Abhiyan-1 of 2019, which covered only 1592 water stressed blocks out of 2836 blocks in 256 districts of the country.
• National Water Mission, under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, is the nodal agency for its implementation and is tirelessly working involving all state governments and all big sized Public and Private enterprises to synergize their actions in this direction.
• The Ministry has coordinated with Ministries of Defence; Rural development; Environment, Forest and Climate Change; Agriculture; Housing and Urban Affairs etc and institutions under Railways, Airports authority of India, CPMFs, all PSUs, Public sector Banks, Universities etc which have vast tracts of lands under them to join hands to ‘Catch the Rain’.
• Abhiyan has gone further to include crop diversification, afforestation and disseminating information on water use efficiency (WUE) under its mandate.

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1727191

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