Tamil Nadu

Subsidy scheme to recharge wells

Tirupur: Farmers in Avinashi and Udumalpet blocks, where the groundwater resources are in ‘stressed conditions’ (either critical or over exploited), can heave a sigh of relief.

The Public Works Department, in association with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), will implement the ‘Artificial recharge of groundwater through dug-wells’ scheme in the blocks in two years.

The project aims at enhancing the sustainability of wells, irrigated agriculture productivity and socio-economic conditions as well as quality of life of farmers in these select regions.

According to the guidelines of the scheme, a well recharge structure should comprise a chamber filled with gravel and sand for filtering run-off water and another compartment for silt collection, before letting the pure water into the well.

While the PWD will identify the beneficiary farmers from among those who own wells and monitor the implementation of the scheme. The NABARD will disburse subsidy to the selected farmers towards the construction as well as maintenance of groundwater recharge structures.

The subsidy amount will be taken from the corpus created by the Union Government at the national level for the scheme, for which NABARD has been identified as its ‘custodian’ (ie custodian of the corpus)

V. Suresh, Assistant General Manager, NABARD, told The Hindu that under the scheme, small and marginal farmers who wished to establish artificial recharge structures were entitled to get 100 per cent subsidy subjected to a maximum unit project cost of Rs. 4,000.

The other farmers could get a 50 per cent subsidy on the unit project cost of Rs. 4,000.

“Since artificial recharge of groundwater is one of the most effective groundwater management tools, the procedure will ensure the farmers sustainability of groundwater resources as well as arrest water quality degradation,” Mr. Suresh said.

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