At the recent watershed development meet it was decided that the maintenance of tanks,  belonging to the eight collective guiding teams and coming under the jurisdiction of Chintamani, Shidlaghatta, Bagepalli and Gudibande taluks, be given to the 45 organisations engaged in the maintenance of tanks.
The decision of transferring the maintenance of tanks has been approved at the  zilla samiti meet, said Sub-Divisional officer Dr Arundathi Chandra Shekar at Valasenahalli in the premises of Raja tank.
Watershed development organisations apart from regenerating tanks is also engaged in maintenance of tanks before  handing them over to the community. Moreover, these organisations should engage themselves in systematic maintenance of the tanks in the future and only then can the Watershed development schemes be made a success, she added.
These organisations should engage themselves in both the regeneration and maintenance of tanks. Moreover, the income that is generated out of the maintenance of tanks should be spent on fisheries, afforestation and sustainable activities. For better functioning of these organisations ZP members should also be included, suggested Dr Arundathi Chandra Shekar.
People of the community can directly avail themselves of the government schemes only when the membership in these organisations is increased, said Zilla Planning Coordinating officer B S Rajanna.
Also, various voluntary organisations who have helped in the regeneration of tanks either directly or indirectly were lauded at the meet.
Also present at the meet were Fisheries Department Assistant Director Nagaraj,  Social Scientist Shiva Kumar, Manjunath, Narayanswamy and others. Members, presidents and activists of the 45 organisations engaged in maintenance and regeneration of tanks also participated in the meet.