Cabinet approves completion of balance works of North Koel Reservoir Project

The Union Cabinet today gave its approval to the proposal to complete the balance works of the North Koel Reservoir Project in Jharkhand and Bihar at an estimated expenditure of Rs.1622.27 crore to be incurred during three financial years from the start of the project.

The Cabinet also approved storage of water in dam restricted at lower level than envisaged earlier to reduce the submergence and to protect Betla National Park and Palamau Tiger Reserve.

The project is situated on North Koel river which is a tributary of Sone river finally joining the River Ganga.

The North Koel Reservoir is located in the most backward tribal areas in Palamau and Garhwa districts of Jharkhand.

The construction was originally started in the year 1972 and continued till 1993 when it was stopped by the Forest Department, Govt. of Bihar.

Since then, the work on dam is at a standstill. The major components of project are: 67.86 m high and 343.33 m long concrete dam called Mandal dam originally intended to store 1160 million cubic metre (MCM) water; 819.6 m long barrage at Mohammadganj, 96 km downstream of the dam; and two canals originating from left and right banks of Mohammadganj Barrage with distributaries system for irrigation.

With the new lowered elevation level (EL) of 341 metre, the Mandal dam will now have storage of 190 MCM. The project aims to provide irrigation to 111,521 hectares of land annually in the most backward and drought prone areas of Palamu & Garhwa districts in Jharkhand and Aurangabad and Gaya districts in Bihar.

The unfinished project as on date is providing irrigation to 71,720 hectares and completion of this project will provide additional irrigation benefit to the extent of 39,801 hectares. The irrigation potential through this Project in the two States would be as follows:

In a separate development, the union cabinet also approved the creation of a single non-lapsable corpus fund for secondary and higher education from the proceeds of cess for secondary and higher education levied under Section 136 of Finance Act, 2007

This non-lapsable pool in the public account is known as the "Madhyamik and Uchchtar Shiksha Kosh" (MUSK).

The funds arising from the MUSK would be utilized for schemes in the education sector which would be available for the benefit of students of secondary and higher education, all over the country.

In connection with the above fund, the Union Cabinet also accorded its approval to the following:

(i) Administration and maintenance of the above pool by Ministry of Human Resource Development.

(ii) Accruals from the Cess would be utilized in the ongoing schemes of Secondary and Higher Education. However, the Ministry of Human Resources Development can allocate funds for any future programme/scheme of secondary and higher education, based on the requirement, as per prescribed procedure,

(iii) In any financial year, the expenditure on ongoing schemes of the Department of School Education & Literacy and Department of Higher Education would be initially incurred from the gross budgetary support (GBS) and the expenditure would be financed from the MUSK only after the GBS is exhausted.

(iv) The MUSK would be maintained as a Reserve Fund in the non-interest bearing section of the Public Accounts of India.

The major benefit will be enhancing access to secondary and higher education through availability of adequate resources, while ensuring that the amount does not lapse at the end of financial year.

Features:

1. Accruals into the proposed non-lapsable fund will be made available for expansion of secondary education and higher education.

2. For Secondary Education: Presently, the Ministry of Human Resources Development envisages that the accruals from the Cess would be utilized in the secondary education for:

? ongoing Rashtriya Madhyamik Shlksha Abhiyan Scheme and other approved programmes including:

? National Means-Cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme and

? National Scheme for Incentives to Girls for Secondary Education.

3. For Higher Education: the accruals would be utilized for:

? ongoing Schemes of Interest Subsidy and contribution for guarantee funds, Scholarship for College & University Students;

? Rashtriya Uchchtar Shiksha Abhiyaan;

? Scholarship (from Block Grant to the institutions) and National Mission on Teachers and Training.

? However, the Ministry of Human Resources Development can allocate funds for any programme/scheme of secondary and higher education, based on the requirement & prescribed procedure.

The purpose of levying cess for secondary and higher education is to provide adequate resources for secondary and higher education.

The fund would be operationalised as per the present arrangements under Prarambhik Shiksha Kosh (PSK) wherein the proceeds of cess are used for Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Schemes of the Department of School Education and Literacy.