The government has decided to conduct a drive to remove encroachment of water bodies to help rainwater harvesting and groundwater conservation to tide over drought, flood and drinking water crisis.

The revenue and land reforms department will run the campaign and follow the guidelines enumerated in the Disaster Risk Reduction Roadmap 2015-2030, which mandates action for water conservation to be taken at district and departmental levels.

Speaking in the presence of revenue and land reforms minister Madan Mohan Jha, principal secretary Vyasji on Thursday said the campaign had been named "Operation Water Body Conservation" and will focus on removing encroachment of ponds, lakes, canals, ahar and pynes (traditional water harvesting systems), drains, water drainage channels and rivers.

"Bihar has been facing drought and drinking water crisis owing to the irregular and scarce rainfall over the last few years. The main purpose of the campaign is to conserve groundwater to tackle such conditions," Vyasji said.

The principal secretary said 28 of 38 districts in the state were flood-prone and high rainfall led to floods and waterlogging in rural as well as urban areas. Patna has been facing flood-like situation owing to high rainfall and ensuing waterlogging in the past few years.

"We must learn from recent floods in Chennai and before that, in Mumbai, which happened due to heavy rain and encroachment of rivers and water bodies. The reason for non-conservation of water, waterlogging and floods in rural and urban areas is that waterbodies in the vicinities are obstructed by encroachments. People have built houses on them, which has adversely affected water conservation and discharge," Vyasji added.

Under the operation, officials have been directed to identify all public water bodies, find out their status and prepare a circle-wise list. It will be uploaded on the department's website and the opinion of the public along with information on other encroached water bodies.

Help from geographical information system (GIS) and geographical positioning system (GPS) would also be taken.

In the next phase, FIRs will be lodged and action will be taken to remove encroachments from the identified water bodies. It will be followed by their renovation, deepening and uplift.

Vyasji added that the revenue and land reforms department has taken action to help the landless persons among whom the state government distributed land, but they could not get its possession owing to various reasons, or were dispossessed by musclemen.

The government has identified 17.3 lakh receipt holders of such distributed land of which 1.23 lakh cases of non-possession or dispossession have been identified. The department has helped 71,428 people get possession of land allotted to them.