Kshipra Sub Basin - Asian Development Bank

Support to the National Water Mission NAPCC
Appendix 3 Kshipra Sub Basin
V. INSTITUTIONS
A. Summary of Policy Acts and Institutions
82. State Water Policy of MP is in accordance with the guidelines and general directions in the
National Water Policy. The State water policy makes specific reference among others to: (i)
Information system development as principal necessity in the planning of water resources; (ii) Water
resource planning to be multipurpose and accord priority for drinking water and development of
hydroelectricity; (iii) development and conjunctive use of surface and groundwater; (iv) The quality of
the surface water and groundwater shall be tested on regular basis by concerned departments; (v)
water rates should be such which conveys the beneficiary the scares value of water; (v) The water
resources planning structure to be correlated with demand base of water distribution and necessary
institutional reforms are taken; (vi) establishment of Water Zones and Water Shed Management; (vii
safety of water conservation structures, Research on river formation works and construction material
and (viiii) water distribution system and Remote sensing techniques.
Acts: Good water governance includes regulatory measures. Regulations are necessary to maximize
the economic and social benefits, resulting from water use in an equitable manner. Good water
resource regulation requires an enabling environment, which ensures the rights and assets of all
stakeholders and protects public assets such as intrinsic environmental values. Madhya Pradesh
Irrigation Act, 1931 is progressive in terms of asserting direct state control over water. Further, the
Regulation of Waters Act, 1949 of MP reasserted that ‗all rights in the water of any natural source of
supply shall vest in the Government.
83. With regard to surface water, existing rules still derive from the early common rule of riparian
rights. Thus, the basic rule was that riparian owners had a right to use the water of a stream flowing
past their land equally with other riparian owners to have the water come to them undiminished in flow,
quantity or quality. In recent times, the riparian right theory has increasingly been rejected as the
appropriate basis for adjudicating water claims. In respect of groundwater, the basic principle
governing the groundwater use is that access to and use of groundwater is a right of the landowner, in
other words, it is one of the rights that landowners enjoy over their possessions. The state WRD
prepared the Madhya Pradesh Boojal Vidheyak 1999 (draft) in line with the Model bill circulated by the
Ministry of Water Resources (MOWR) Government of India (GOI) and the draft bill got approved by
the department of law in 1999. However, model bill 2005 received from MOWR, GOI prompted the
state to revise their earlier bill of 1999 and the new Madhya Pradesh (Regulation and control of
Development and Management) Act 2007 has been prepared and awaiting approval by the
government of MP. The key features of groundwater bill are: (i) notification of areas, (ii) grant of permit
to extract and use groundwater in the notified area; (iii) registration of existing users in the notified
area; (iv) registration of users of new wells in non-notified areas; (v) registration of drilling agencies;
(vi) rain water harvesting for groundwater recharge in over exploited areas (vii) protection of public
drinking water sources and (viii) two tier of authority i.e. State level Groundwater Authority and District
level groundwater authority as an implementation mechanism.
84. PIM Act 11 : The basic idea behind Farmers‘ Managed Irrigation Systems (FAMIS) was to
improve the overall efficiency of irrigation system, generate sense of ownership among farmers and to
improve the irrigation revenue recovery rate. This laid the seeds for Participatory Irrigation
Management (PIM) in India. The first Farmers‘ Management of Irrigation System Act was enacted by
Andhra Pradesh in 1997. Subsequently many other states i.e. Chattishgarh, Gujarat, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, and Tamil Nadu came up with act or legislation governing farmers‘
involvement in irrigation management. Before formulation of PIM act, GOMP took several other
initiatives to have farmers‘ involvement in irrigation management. They established the Irrigation
Panchayats (IPs) in early 1984-85 under MP Irrigation Act, 1931. The functions of these IPs, their
rights and duties were not clearly defined under the then existing MP Irrigation Rules, 1974.
Consequently these IPs became defunct. In 1994-95, Farmers Management Committees (FMCs)
were formed on pilot basis. Their design principles were very much similar to the farmers‘
cooperatives in the state of Gujarat and Maharashtra. These FMCs were registered under the
11 Source: Irrigation Management Transfer In India: The Processes and Constraints by Nitin Bassi, Research
Consultant, Institute for Resource Analysis and Policy (IRAP)
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