From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: Meghalaya has demanded setting up of a Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI) to enable proper management of water in the State.
The institute will be in line with similar institutes in some other states. The demand for this institute was made by Union Minister of State for Water Resources Vincent H Pala and Meghalaya’s Minister for Water Resources AL Hek during their meeting with Union Minister for water resources Pawan Kumar Bansal here on Thursday.
“The Union Minister has assured that the Water Resources Ministry will look into the demand and take a favourable action,” Hek said before leaving for Shillong.
Once established, this will be a premiere State Training Institute to impart multi-disciplinary training in the field of water management.
This will be a well-established institute for imparting multi-disciplinary training to in-service irrigation engineers, agronomists, soil scientists, extension workers and farmers of the region, Hek said.
Bansal maintained that water resources management has to be taken up by the respective states. Even in ancient times, management of water used to be done as per local conditions and each water system was managed through local participation and community control, he observed.