The Hindu : No agreement on irrigation charges

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 18, 2002

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No agreement on irrigation charges

By Gargi Parsai

New Delhi June 17. There was no agreement among States here today on the Centre's proposal to introduce mandatory charges of minimum 10 per cent in the Tenth Plan from beneficiaries farmers for On-Farm Development (OFD) works including construction of field channels and reclamation of waterlogged areas.

Although it has been left to State Governments to seek higher beneficiary contribution, some States including Haryana had reservations about charging farmers towards construction of field channels during the one-day conference of State Secretaries in charge of the Command Area Development (CAD) Programme convened by the Union Ministry of Water Resources here. Finally, it was decided that the Ministry would bring a fresh proposal making it mandatory for farmers to either pay in cash or through labour, towards On-Farm Development. States which did not have a beneficiary farmers' participatory component in their CAD programmes would not be able to avail themselves of Central funds.

So far the OFD works were being fully funded by the Government on a 50:50 basis between the Centre and the State. The proposal for a 10 per cent (or more) mandatory contribution by the beneficiary farmers is being made out for the first time.

"It is heartening to note that some of the States including Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have already taken a lead and carried out amendments to their `Irrigation Management Acts' to provide sound legal backing and organisational framework for Participatory Irrigation Management,'' said the Water Resources Secretary, B.N. Navalawala, in his inaugural address.

The Minister of State for Water Resources, Bijoya Chakravarty, called upon States to give thrust to irrigation programmes for development of the economy.

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