Orissa Pani Panchayat Act (2002)

The Orissa Pani Panchayat Act (2002) aims to provide for farmers participation in the management of irrigation systems. The Act deals with the Farmers’ Organisation and gives an overall picture on the delineation of water users area as pani panchayat and constitution of pani panchayat.

It further describes the election of members of chak committee and that of the president and members of the executive committee of pani panchayat. Here, the policy talks about the eligibility criteria for membership, arrangement for all the elections and powers and functions of the executive committee.

In the clause of the delineation of distributary area and constitution of distributary committee, the policy mentions the role of the Chief Engineer in the process and the formation of the distributary committee and its constituents, the government’s role in nominating a member from amongst its functionaries, and the terms of the committee.

The policy then mentions of the election of president, secretary, treasurer and constitution of executive committee of distributary committee, the delineation of project area and constitution of project committee, election of president and constitution of the executive committee of the project committee and formation of a state level committee.

It also covers the procedure for recall of a president of a farmers’ organisation, constitution of sub-committees in farmers' organisation, farmers’ organisation to be a body corporate with a distinct name and capacity of entering into contracts and of doing all things necessary, role of the competent authority to make changes in farmers’ organisation, disqualification criteria for candidature or memberships of the farmers’ organisation, and conditions and procedures for filling up of vacancies that arise due to any reason. 

Read the Act