Section 41 in The Maharashtra Management of Irrigation Systems by Farmers Rules, 2006
41. Participation of Water Users' Association in execution of on-going projects.
- With the primary object of formation of the Water Users' Association, the following procedure may be adopted for the participation of the Water Users' Association at Minor Level in the execution of the work of distribution systems having capacity not exceeding one cubic meter per second,-(a)The command plan of proposed distribution system showing alignment of distributory, minors, sub-minors, field channels, location and level of all structures on the channels, command area boundaries of all channels, village boundaries, natural drains, gaothans, alongwith prescribed water use entitlement, shall be displayed in the office of the concerned Canal Officer at least for the period of fifteen days for study by the farmers and offering their comments or suggestions and also be published by the concerned Canal Officer through the leading newspaper in that area.(b)The Canal Officer shall call the meeting of all probable beneficiaries and explain the proposal to them.(c)Any suggestions or comments on the proposed distribution system shall be submitted by the probable beneficiaries to the concerned Canal Officer within a period of thirty days. If necessary, beneficiaries may seek the advice of the experts.(d)All the suggestions or comments received shall be discussed in the meeting of farmers called for this purpose and appropriate decisions shall be taken in this meeting and kept on record. In case of disagreement, the decision given by the concerned Superintending Engineer or Executive Engineer, as the case may be, shall be final.(e)Plans and estimates may be revised, if necessary, based on the decisions taken in the said meeting.(f)After finalizing the proposal, the Canal Officer shall initiate and complete the process of formation of Water Users' Association.(g)The execution of the work may start by following the usual procedure adopted in the Water Resources Department.(h)A Committee of all Chairpersons of the concerned Water Users' Association at Minor Level shall be formed to inspect the work going on and offer its comments or suggestions in writing to the concerned Canal Officer. The Canal Officer, after examining the comments or suggestions take appropriate actions duly communicating the same to the Committee. The performance testing of the system shall be carried out in the presence of the Committee of all Chairpersons and defects noticed, if any, shall be rectified to the satisfaction of the Committee.(i)The completed system, after testing, shall be handed over to the concerned Water Users' Association.Annexure-1(See rule 3)Guidelines for Delineation of area of Water Users' Association.
