Unmeritorious, technically deficient...phoooeeey!

December 5, 2007

H/l: State gets 5/13 on lake conservation proposals
Intro: Centre approves only five proposals; terms remaining as ‘technically deficient’
CORRESPONDENT

From: Vrushali Lad

Mumbai: The state will not be too happy with scoring just five out of 13 on the polluted lakes front. Looking to include 13 of its prominent polluted lakes under the National Lake Conservation Project (NCLP), Maharashtra has got approval on only five lakes.

The NCLP is a centre-initiated project for conservation and management of polluted lakes in the country, and under the project, funds are released in a phase-wise manner for the cleaning and upkeep of polluted lakes, as also the monitoring of pollution and closing down of polluting industrial units if any.

In the last approval phase during 2004-2005, 31 lake proposals received sanction under NCLP and funds of Rs 400 lakhs were approved. However, of the 13 proposals submitted by the government of Maharashtra to the Ministry of Environment and Forests earlier this year, only five have been approved for Rs 24.25 crores funding.

Minister for Environment and Forests, Namo Narain Meena informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply yesterday, that of the 13 proposals received, eight were rejected on grounds of being technically deficient or not falling within the mandate of the NLCP.
“However, five proposals for conservation have already been approved at a total estimated cost of Rs 24.25 crores.

The state government has been asked to scrutinise the remaining proposals at their level, keeping the NLCP guidelines in view and also to explore the possibilities of inclusion of some of these lakes in the State Conservation Plan through the state budget available for the purpose,” Meena informed the Sabha in the reply.