Chandigarh, August 24: Punjab has completed its assessment against the Centre’s newly introduced State Water Reforms Framework (SWRF) and is currently awaiting final budgetary inputs from a few departments before submitting its report to the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti by August 31.
The SWRF framework evaluates states and Union Territories on 75 binary indicators spanning five core operational areas, including policy and regulation, project monitoring, digitalization, research and development, infrastructure, and community engagement.
State officials confirmed that technical evaluations across the specified parameters are fully prepared. Sukhjit Singh Bhullar, state nodal officer-cum-chief engineer of the Water Resources Department, stated that the state had completed work on the 75 indicators and was now waiting for budgetary reports from some departments, maintaining that the final submission will be sent to the ministry by August 31. He added that any requirement for policy intervention would be communicated by the ministry following scrutiny of the state’s submission.
The evaluation covers existing water-data portals, groundwater indicators, monitoring mechanisms, and infrastructure systems. The exercise aims to align state-level governance with national standards, with the framework setting key measurable targets for states to achieve by December 31, 2026.
Alongside the central assessment, the state is pursuing its 14-point water conservation and management strategy to address groundwater depletion. The strategy focuses on modernizing canal networks, reviving abandoned watercourses, mandating rainwater recharge wells in new urban construction, and increasing surface water availability to tail-end agricultural zones.
