Digging shallow
Rs 1,800 crore groundwater programme a non-starter
A Rs 1,800 crore national programme for artificial recharge of groundwater through dug-wells was announced by finance minister P Chidambaram, in February 2007. It was to provide proper irrigation facilities to millions of farmers. But thanks to the delays on part of the state governments, the scheme is yet to take off.
With about 80 per cent of the groundwater stressed areas concentrated in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, the scheme envisages recharging 4.45 million irrigation dug-wells in these seven states.
But due to inaction by respective state governments, Rs 1,537 crore sanctioned under the scheme is still lying unused. The money has also been transferred to national bank for agricultural and rural development (nabard) for disbursement by the ministry of finance.D Elangovan, general manager, nabard, says,