16. Status of the Implementation of the Recommendations of Rashtriya Barh Ayog

Ministry of Agriculture & Irrigation, Government of India constituted in July 1976 the Rashtriya Barh Ayog (National Flood Commission), under the Chairmanship of Shri Jaisukhlal Hathi, the then Governor of Haryana/Punjab. The Ayog submitted its Report in March 1980, which contained 207 recommendations covering the entire gamut of flood control activities. The further actions to be taken for implementing the recommendations of the Rashtriya Barh Ayog (RBA), suitably modified or amended where necessary, were approved by the Ministry of Irrigation. These were forwarded in September 1981 to all State Governments, Union Territories, Ministries and Departments of the Central Government concerned, in the form of “Guidelines & Instructions for the Implementation of the Recommendations of the Rashtriya Barh Ayog 1980”. A comprehensive review made in 1987 by Central Water Commission indicated that implementation on the recommendations was low. The Working Group on Flood Control for the VII Five-Year Plan (1985–90) identified 25 important recommendations for immediate implementation. The Working Group on Flood Control Programme for X Five-Year Plan in its report presented in August 2001 had also reviewed status of implementation of recommendations and found that these have mostly remained unimplemented. Ministry of Water Resources set up in October 2001, the Experts Committee under the Chairmanship of Shri R. Rangachari to review the implementation of recommendations of the Rashtriya Barh Ayog (RBA). The Committee studied each of the 207 recommendations of RBA for its relevance and importance in the present context and identified forty of these as of greater importance for implementation and recommended regular monitoring thereof. The Committee concluded that while there were international and inter-state issues, funds constraints, population pressure and lack of infrastructure as the main difficulties in the way of implementation of some of the recommendations, but there are a number of other recommendations in implementation of which there are no major problems, but on which also actions had not been taken.