Powers, functions and duties of Authority

The powers, functions and duties of the Authority shall be as under : (1) a) To determine and regulate the distribution of entitlement of waterfor various categories of uses as well as within each category of use (such as irrigation, municipal/rural drinking water/industry etc) on a yearly/seasonal basis. b) To determine the requirement of irrigation water for the various levels of Farmers Organization (namely, Project Committee, Distributary Committee and Water User Association) based on the cropping pattern approved by the project authorities on a yearly/season basis and implement the same, (2) a) To fix and regulate the water tariff system and charges for surface and sub-surface water used for domestic, agriculture, industrial and other purposes b) To determine the adequate operation and maintenance (O&M) cost of irrigation/ multipurpose water projects c) To periodically review and monitor the water sector costs and revenues. d) The State will try to ensure provisions for full operation and maintenance requirements of such irrigation projects as determined by the Authority, through an appropriate budgetary support, to ensure that the quality of the service delivery is not allowed to suffer for want of systems Operation and Maintenance needs. (3) To promote efficient management of irrigation water : a) Providing Guidelines / Procedures / modalities for ploughback of operation & maintenance amount to the farmers organizations for the operation and maintenance of the irrigation systems as well as standards of services, b) Monitoring the technical standards for operation and maintenance, cyclical repairs and minimum rehabilitation of irrigation system, c) Ensure that the principle of “tail to head” irrigation is implemented by the project authorities. (4) To promote efficient use of water resources and minimizing wastage of water by : a) Fixing and monitoring implementation of stipulated quality standards for management of water resources by various users/departments and recommend actions against violations. b) Fixing and monitoring implementation of stipulated quality standards for the services to be provided by various water resources service providers and recommend actions against violations. (5) To ensure publication of an annual report containing following information by project authorities : a) Irrigation status containing all statistical data relating to irrigation including details of the project wise and basin wise irrigation potential and its actual utilization, water user efficiency and productivity relating to the projects. b) Benchmarking of irrigation/multipurpose water projects to identify projects with best management practices for emulation by other projects. c) Water Audit of Irrigation/multipurpose water projects giving a systematic and scientific water account of the projects. (6) a) The Authority shall devise a suitable mechanism for financial incentives/ disincentives to the farmer’s organizations and other water users for ensuring delivery of services to their members as per the determination. b) The Authority shall in case of non-compliance of the specific directions in discharge of the powers under this Act, recommend to the Government suitable disciplinary action against such Government officials. (7) To perform any other powers, functions and duties as assigned to the Authority by the State Government by notification.