First water commission for river mgmt gets cabinet nod

Time of India

22-05-2025

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Ranchi: The state cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to set up a state water resources commission for the integrated development of all river basins and its efficient management.
The commission, a first in Jharkhand, comes at a time when many rivers, including Harmu and Subernarekha in Ranchi, are dying due to pollution, illegal sand mining and encroachment over the years. In other parts of Jharkhand such as Bokaro (through which Damodar flows), mining pollution has been a major cause of concern for the rivers.
Cabinet secretary Vandana Dadel said the water resources department will form the commission and its tenure would be two years.
"Development commissioner will be the chairman while its member secretary will be the water resources department secretary. This apart, there will be few more subject matter experts as its members," she said.
The ministerial council approved 10 proposals in Thursday's meeting. In another significant decision, cabinet gave its nod to distribution of free textbooks and notebooks to the students of all categories enrolled in classes 9-10 in minority secondary schools, madrasas and Sanskrit schools operating with non-governmental aid in the state.
"Expenses to the tune of Rs 4.85 crore is estimated for this," she said.
The cabinet also granted a proposal of the school education and literacy department to print and distribute science magazines and competitive books.
"Science magazines will be given monthly for classes 9-12 across 2,723 schools while different competitive books will be provided to students of class 11-12 in 996 schools. This will incur an estimated cost of Rs 14.20 crore per year," she said.
Dadel said the idea behind this move was to inculcate scientific temper among students, expose them to various ideas and education material and enable them support for preparing for various exams.
Approval was also granted for the formation of the Jharkhand Manpower Procurement (Outsourcing) Manual, 2025, which will now pave way for a streamlined process for roping in contractual workers on outsourcing basis in different govt departments.
"The manual details on various aspects for hiring manpower on outsourcing, their pays cales, insurance coverages among others for various departments. Hiring on outsourcing can be done for a maximum five years at one go and then fresh bidding process has to be resumed at departmental levels," she added. The cabinet also okayed presentation of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India's State Finance Audit Report for the year ending March 31, 2024, in the upcoming session of the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly.