Groundwater use: States asked to review free electricity to irrigation pump sets

With alarming depletion of groundwater, the Centre's new guidelines for extracting groundwater calls for the states to review free electricity supply scheme to irrigation pump sets.

"States/Union Territories are advised to review their free/subsidised electricity policy to farmers, bring suitable water pricing policy and may work further towards crop rotation/diversification/other initiatives to reduce overdependence on groundwater," the new guidelines said.

Though farmers exempted from taking no objection certificate to extract groundwater, the new norms for drawing of groundwater says, the participative approach is better to ensure sustainable groundwater management in the agriculture sector.

The Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) under the Jal Shakti Ministry recently issued the latest guidelines to regulate the extracting groundwater.

This was done after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) earlier quashed the guidelines in 2018 citing several loopholes.

With groundwater table depleting at an alarming rate, the Centre has earlier launched Atal Jal Yojana, promoting farmers to grow less water-intensive crops in seven states, including Karnataka, where the groundwater situation is very worrisome.

As per the Jal Shakti Ministry, around 90% of groundwater is utilised for agriculture activities while 10% used for domestic and industrial consumers.