programmes. There is, however, a limited understanding about the extent to which
the Centre has been successful with this objective overall, much less so in water
sector.
In the following section, we make a modest attempt at addressing this gap by
looking at how IGFTs matter in federal water governance. The analysis serves two
earlier alluded purposes: to extend our understanding into federal relations over
water governance and to reconsider federal water governance towards pursuing
long-term national water security goals.
3 Can the Centre Influence States to Address National
Water Security Concerns?
This analysis looks deeper into the budgetary allocations and expenditures of the
Centre and states in water sector over time. It searches for specific insights into how
the Centre and the states are located with respect to each other to gauge the former’s
ability to influence the latter, as also states’ responsiveness to the Centre in pursuing
the larger national goals. This is a relatively unfamiliar and unexplored terrain.
There are no earlier studies of this kind that can offer a framework for such an
analysis. And, the water sector poses particular challenges. It is not easy to draw a
line about what can be considered as water budgetary expenditure. Besides, the
exercise of budgetary analysis accompanies complexities associated with the way
the numbers are produced by each state, and meanings associated, which can also
vary across states. The findings of the analysis are subject to these limitations. Yet,
they present a useful and interesting picture.
3.1 Shifting Stakes and Stakeholders?
A quick look at the water resources versus other ministries’ budgets puts the overall
state of affairs with the Centre’s own changing priorities in locating itself in water
resources development and management. The Centre’s allocations to the water and
other proximate ministries over the last one decade can be seen in Fig. 1. Over time,
the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
(DoWR)
5 has been allocated much less than the other ministries with proximate
impacts over water use.
It is in fact declining in relative terms, and the growth in allocations for DoWR is
insignificant compared to others. In the past decade, there has been a shift, of
greater allocations to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA) and
5
Ministry of Jal Shakti (erstwhile Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga
Rejuvenation or MoWR, DR&GR).
Whither India’s Federal Governance for Long-Term Water Security?
173
the Centre has been successful with this objective overall, much less so in water
sector.
In the following section, we make a modest attempt at addressing this gap by
looking at how IGFTs matter in federal water governance. The analysis serves two
earlier alluded purposes: to extend our understanding into federal relations over
water governance and to reconsider federal water governance towards pursuing
long-term national water security goals.
3 Can the Centre Influence States to Address National
Water Security Concerns?
This analysis looks deeper into the budgetary allocations and expenditures of the
Centre and states in water sector over time. It searches for specific insights into how
the Centre and the states are located with respect to each other to gauge the former’s
ability to influence the latter, as also states’ responsiveness to the Centre in pursuing
the larger national goals. This is a relatively unfamiliar and unexplored terrain.
There are no earlier studies of this kind that can offer a framework for such an
analysis. And, the water sector poses particular challenges. It is not easy to draw a
line about what can be considered as water budgetary expenditure. Besides, the
exercise of budgetary analysis accompanies complexities associated with the way
the numbers are produced by each state, and meanings associated, which can also
vary across states. The findings of the analysis are subject to these limitations. Yet,
they present a useful and interesting picture.
3.1 Shifting Stakes and Stakeholders?
A quick look at the water resources versus other ministries’ budgets puts the overall
state of affairs with the Centre’s own changing priorities in locating itself in water
resources development and management. The Centre’s allocations to the water and
other proximate ministries over the last one decade can be seen in Fig. 1. Over time,
the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
(DoWR)
5 has been allocated much less than the other ministries with proximate
impacts over water use.
It is in fact declining in relative terms, and the growth in allocations for DoWR is
insignificant compared to others. In the past decade, there has been a shift, of
greater allocations to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA) and
5
Ministry of Jal Shakti (erstwhile Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga
Rejuvenation or MoWR, DR&GR).
Whither India’s Federal Governance for Long-Term Water Security?
173