Minutes of the Fourth Meeting of the Virtual Centre of Excellence named as Water for Welfare : An Uttaranchal Initiative held on July 26, 2007 at Secretariat, Following attended: 1. Prof. C. Saxena Director & Chairman IIT Government of Uttarakhand Key Officials 2. Shri K. Das Chief Secretary Government of Uttarakhand 3. Shri I.K. Pande Additional Chief Secretary & Government of Uttarakhand IDC 4. Shri Ravi Shankar Principle Secretary Irrigation Government of Uttarakhand and Forest 5. Shri Shatrughan Singh Secretary Energy and Government of Uttarakhand Education 6. Dr. M.C. Joshi Additional Secretary Government of Uttarakhand (Energy) & Director UREDA Core Group 7. Shri Arun Kumar Head & Member Secretary AHEC, IIT 8. Prof. V.K. Nangia Head Deptt of Management Studies, IIT 9. Prof. D.C. Singhal Professor Deptt. Of Hydrology, IIT 10. Dr. M.P. Sharma Associate Professor AHEC, IIT 11. Shri Rakesh Kumar Scientist F National Institute of Hydrology, 12. Dr. K. Bartarya Scientist E Wadia Instt. Of Himalayan Geology, 13. Shri D.D. Pandey Joint Secretary Uttarakhand Board of Technical Education, 14. Shri Akhilesh Verma Deputy Secretary Uttarakhand Board of Technical Education, 15. Shri Suresh Kumar Vaish Works Manager Govt. Workshop, 16. Shri J.P. Taneja Assistant Engineer Govt. Workshop, 17. Shri Suresh Chandra Sharma Superintending Engineer Irrigation Research Institute, Associate Group 18. Shri R.K. Tiwari Registrar Forest Research Institute, 19. Dr. V.K. Dadhwal Dean Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, User Group 20. Shri B. Barfal Principal Chief Conservator Department of Forest, Nainital of Forest 21. Shri Ramesh Chandra Executive Director National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, Uttarakhand Region, 22. Shri D.K. Gupta Managing Director Uttaranchal Peyjal Nigam, 23. Shri A.K. Dinkar Suprintending Engineer Deptt. Of Irrigation, 24. Shri O.P. Singhal General Manager (Engg. & Env.) Uttaranchal Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd, 25. Shri C. Agarwal Addl. General Manager Sutluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd., WFW/4 th Meeting//July 2007 1
26 Shri D.J.K. Sharma Additional Director Watershed Management Directorate, 27. Ms. Meenakshi Joshi Deputy Project Director Watershed Management Directorate, 28. Shri Deepak Sarwal General Manager(Corp. Plg.) Tehri Hydro Development 29. Shri P.K. Agarwal Sr. Manager Tehri Hydro Development 30. Shri Narendra Singh Consultant Tehri Hydro Development 31. Shri Jayant K. Sinha Dy. General Manager (IT) Uttaranchal Power Corporation Ltd., Urja Bhawan, 32. Shri Ram Kumar Chief Project Officer Uttaranchal Infrastructure Projects Company Private Ltd., 33. Shri SK Gupta Secretary (Adm) Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan, 34. Shri A.K. Tyagi Chief Project Officer UREDA, 35 Shri Arun Sharma Managing Director Regency Power, Paonta Saheb After welcoming the participants representing different participating organizations of core group, associate group and user group and their introduction, Prof. S C Saxena, Director, IIT and Chairman of the Virtual Centre as the opening remarks, highlighted the importance of water resources in the economy and development of the state of Uttarakhand and initiative of Virtual Centre of excellence in the form of the federation Water for Welfare : An Uttarakhand Initiative taken by Uttarakhand Govt. He specially welcomed Shri S K Das, Chief Secretary Govt. of Uttarakhand for his first time participation and personal interest shown by him in the meeting indicating the commitment and importance being given by the state government to this initiative. The meeting was also attended by Shri I K Pande, Addl Chief Secretary and Infrastructure Development Commissioner. Shri Shartughan Singh Secretary (Energy) and Shri N Ravishankar Secretary (Irrigation) also attended the meeting. Shri Arun Kumar, Member Secretary & Head AHEC briefed the members present, specifically those who were attending the meeting for the first time, the objectives of this initiative and progress made under this project on Water for Welfare An Uttarakhand initiative. He also made a detailed presentation to the participants covering the progress made till date under this initiative. The agenda wise item were taken for discussion and decisions are as follows: Agenda Item: No 1 To review the achievement of the objectives of creation of this centre in the form of federation The progress made is summarized below: Sl. Items Progress No 1. Release of A print copy of the compendium has been sent to all core and associate group WFW/4 th Meeting//July 2007 2
Compendium of Expertise and Facilities 2 Setting up of the Corpus 3 Release of working funds from User Groups 4 Curriculum Development 5 Name for the Federation Minutes of Fourth Meeting July 26, 2007 members as well user organisations. The soft copy of the compendium has been loaded on the web site. Rs. 1.00 crore has been released by Govt. of Uttaranchal to IIT as endowment for setting of the corpus on March 30, 2005. For meeting the working expenses, a total sum of Rs.7.00 lacs (@Rs.1.00 lac) from following 7 organisations has been received: UREDA UJVNL UPCL Watershed Management Jal Nigam Jal Sansthan ICFAI Tech. The courses finalized for introducing at different levels are given as below: Core Subject Engg. Degree Level Water Resources Development For all branches of engineering Engg. Diploma Level Water Resources Development For all branches Elective Subjects Hydropower Engg : Civil/agriculture.engg. Hydropower Development: Electrical/ mechanical/ instrumentation/ electronics engg Automation of Hydropower and water resources structures Plant: Electronics/electrical engg Hydropower Engg : Civil/agriculture engg Hydropower Engg: Electrical/ instrumentation /electronics Hydropower plants: Mechanical /chemical engineering Environment science For all branches Management and Science Management concept and practices For all disciplines Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) For all disciplines ITI - Electrical Trade: cabling, control/ switchboard/ instrument, transformer, generator, pumps compressors valves and gates, As finalized, the name of the federation has been adopted as Water for Welfare- an Uttarakhand Initiative 6 Website New web site for Water for Welfare- an Uttaranchal Initiative was created. The site has been hosted on Govt. of Uttranchal Portal, known as Uttara (www.uttrara.in): http://www.uttara.in/uaportalwebapp/uaportal/english/initiatives/wfw/intro.htm The details of the site have been also attached subsequently with these agenda papers at Annex 1 A discussion forum has been also created where all members (core, associate and user organisations) can send the message, share their information, needs, news letter by choosing one or several or whole group. Each member has a user ID with Password for which access has been given by secretariat in Dec 2005 WFW/4 th Meeting//July 2007 3
7 Rules Rules for virtual center of excellence in form of federation Water for Welfarean Uttaranchal Initiative were finalized. The rules have been designed on the pattern of a society, but the operation is to be in the project mode to have a wider flexibility. 8 Publications Special publications on case studies and promotion material were prepared and have been pasted on web site Rehabilitation of Tehri dam and lessons learnt Public perception of water and hydropower projects-problems and analysis case of Bhillangana SHP Sensitizing the masses and creating awareness for water conservation and avoidance wastage of water The chief secretary emphasized the importance of water in human life and society. He suggested enlarging the membership of user / participatory organizations by taking in to its fold specially those NGOs who are active in water related activities. He cited the example of HESCO and People s Science Institute who could be involved in this initiative. He further suggested that the special publications including legislation related matter viz Jal Adhiniyam, Gharat Adhiniyam, Traditional practices, Legal practices, Role of Panchayati Raj, Role of Community Participation be prepared and made available on the web site in the next 3 months by virtual centre secretariat. ACS and IDC suggested that the deliverable in the given time frame should be worked out in conjunction with the participation of user group members alongwith other members of the initiative. Agenda Item 2 To review and discuss the possible bottlenecks, barriers in utilization of services/support of member organizations among themselves Member Secretary described various bottlenecks in the functioning of the Water for Welfare initiative, specifically, lack of interest and enthusiasm in the participating institutions. It also emerged during the discussion that there is not a single nodal person representing the participation organization resulting in discontinuity of dissemination of information to the participants. At the initiative of Director IIT, various participants from different organizations volunteered to offer their services or suggested other names to act as nodal persons representing their respective organizations to ensure the continuity of participation and sharing of responsibility and accountability. The list of nodal persons is given below: 1. Shri N. Ravi Shankar Principal Secretary Government of Uttarakhand (Irrigation & Forest) 2. Shri Bhajan Singh Chief Engineer ( HQ) Uttranchal Pey Jal 3. Shri Anil Garg Principal Conservator of Department of Forest, Nainital Forests 4. Shri P.C. Kinoti Secretary Secretary (appraisal) Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan, WFW/4 th Meeting//July 2007 4
5. Shri Suresh Kumar Works Manager Govt. Workshop, Vaish 6. Shri Akhilesh Verma Deputy Secretary Uttarakhand Board of Technical Education 7. Dr. V.K. Dadhwal Dean Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, 8. Shri O.P. Singhal General Manager (Engg. & Uttaranchal Jal Vidyut Nigam Env.) Ltd, 9. Shri D.J.K. Sharma Additional Director Watershed Management Directorate, 10. Shri Deepak Sarwal General Manager Tehri Hydro Development 11. Shri A.K. Tyagi Chief Project Officer UREDA, 12. Shri Ram Kumar Chief Project Officer Uttaranchal Infrastructure Projects Company Private Ltd., 13. Shri Arun Sharma Managing Director Regency Power, Paonta Saheb 14. Shri Ramesh Chander Executive Director National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, Uttarakhand Region, 15. Shri Jayant K Sinha Dy. General Manager (IT) Uttaranchal Power Corporation 16. Shri Suresh Chandra Sharma Superintending Engineer Ltd., Urja Bhawan, Irrigation Research Institute, Agenda 3 To discuss capacity building in the field of water resources / hydropower in the state for increasing employment of state personnel. Member Secretary informed that Director Technical Education has taken necessary steps to incorporate different courses in state polytechnics including the training of their teachers. Secretary Technical Education assured that the necessary steps will be taken up to induct these courses at degree level in various engineering institutions and universities from the next semester/academic session in the next 3 months. He mentioned that a meeting of Vice Chancellor, Directors/ Principles of different universities/institutions shall be organized for the purpose. The participants noted the observation made by Member secretary regarding the difficulties faced by the students during the plant visit. The user groups assured to provide the requisite cooperation for the visits of students and teachers to their establishments. Principle chief conservator forest suggested that the forest hydrology be included in different syllabi. Prof D C Singhal mentioned that forest hydrology subjects are being taught in their curriculum of postgraduate studies at IIT. Dean IRRS offered the group members their expertise for carrying out the capacity building on the use of satellite data for mapping water resources in the state. WFW/4 th Meeting//July 2007 5
Agenda No 4 To set the targets for Activities during the year 2007-08 ACS and IDC Shri I K Pande observed that it may be difficult to implement the wide charter of Water for welfare An Uttarakhand initiative in one go and therefore few priority areas may be identified for deciding the action plan in the near future. Accordingly during the course of discussion, as suggested by ACS and IDC Shri I K Pande, it was decided to hold brainstorming sessions during the next 3 months of the nodal persons of participating organizations in order to revisit the activities, define the scope of participants group, formation of subcommittees of different subject experts and their deliverables for the year 2007 08. The suggestion made by Shri Arun Sharma to form various sub committees on different topics based on the expertise of the members to address various pertinent issues was well received by the participants. Agenda 5 To note the expenditure incurred during the year 2005 06 and 2006-07 and to consider the budget for the year 2007 08 and 2008 09 The expenditure incurred during the year 2005 06 and 2006-07 was noted and budget based on the contribution from members and accrued interest for the year 2007 08 and 2008 09 was approved as presented. Agenda 6 Under the any other item, it was decided to hold the next meeting of this group within next 3 months. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the chair. WFW/4 th Meeting//July 2007 6