IMPHAL, April 25: The acute shortage of water in the state is due to policy paralysis, alleged Ashwanikumar BJP state general secretary administration and Media affairs.
This was stated at the press meet convened at the office of BJP Nityaipat Chuthek, Imphal this afternoon. He further lamented that the state is facing water crisis because of non-implementation of long term water policy in the state.
He said that climate change due to global warming has also affected the Manipur state too. The Central government of India has initiated the National Water Policy in the year 2002; it was passed in the parliament as a bill and adopted it as National Water Policy Frame Work law in 2013.
The Centre has also directed all its states to implement the Water Policy as state subject under the National Water Policy Frame Work law. He said that the serious situation of water crisis is an artificial one due to absence of a long term policy.
He asserted that the state is located among the highest rainfall states in India. State received 2000 Milliliters of rain water approximately per year. And 85 percent of the total area of the state is cover with forest and jungle area which have many water bodies and catchment area.
But unfortunately, the forest and catchment area has been deforested for Jhum cultivation and trees cut down for livelihood. Geographically Manipur has perennial source of water but due to the failure of state government policy people are now facing water crisis. On the other hand the IFCD of the state is an outdated department which needs replacement with a separate department of water resource.
He alleged that the water related department like IFCD, PHED, CADA, Forest, Agriculture, LDA and Minor Irrigation department etc has no co-operation among them. So, the state government is an adhoc government. The BJP demands an immediate water policy to implement in the immediate future.