Water conservation, policy research centre to come up at YASAHDA

State finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, in his budget speech on Friday, said a centre for water awareness and an advance research centre for public policy, would be set up. Both centres would incidentally be housed in the Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA), which is located on Baner Road in Pune.

YASHADA, headed by IAS officer Anand Limaye, is the apex body imparting training to senior officers and grassroot level workers alike. It offers training in its urban and rural planning departments, and its centre for equity and social justice, among others. It also runs a preparation centre for IAS aspirants.

The process of policy formulation adopting scientific methodologies and research, and the policy evaluation in itself is a continuous and perpetual process, Mungantiwar said. “The advanced countries in the world have specialised institutions for performing this task. The government aims to create such an institution of international standards for research and development in public policies and administration, through YASHADA, Pune, with assistance from institutions of international repute and standing. This will strengthen our public policy formulation and its evaluation system,” he said.

For several years, officers in YASHADA have been evaluating various government schemes and processes. Officials from YASHADA carried out exhaustive research on rehabilitation of the Narmada project-affected as well as the state of ashram shalas. YASHADA would also house the centre for water literacy and awareness. “It is the need of the hour to promote water literacy and spread water awareness among all sections of the society which will help in proper planning for the judicious and efficient use of water. With this view, a permanent water centre is going to be set up at YASHADA, with sub-centres at forest academy, Chandrapur, WALMI Aurangabad and Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Administrative Training Academy, Amravati,” said Mungantiwar.

YASHADA’s centre for rural development takes up various works about water conservation. Also, work is undertaken for water conservation under the employment guarantee scheme (EGS). Senior officials of the institute said they already have the knowledge base to run such institutions.YASHADA, headed by IAS officer Anand Limaye, is the apex body imparting training to senior officers and grassroot level workers alike.