40% of Assam irrigation schemes non-functional

 STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Forty percent of the irrigation schemes in Assam are defunct, and the functional schemes can water only 14 percent of the gross sown area.

State Irrigation Minister Ashok Singhal informed the State Assembly today that the Irrigation Department has a total of 3,919 irrigation projects and schemes under it. And 1,585 of these schemes are defunct, and in the past two years, the department has repaired 410 schemes and made them functional.

Singhal said, “The gross crop-sown area in the state is 38.88 lakh hectares, and irrigation schemes have covered 11.03 lakh hectares of the sown area. However, the department is able to water only 5.50 lakh hectares.

When the Opposition MLAs wanted the minister to spell out what measures the department has taken to water 100 percent of the sown area in the state, Singhal said, “We have taken various schemes, but that will take time. The process is on to repair the defunct irrigation schemes. Many factors are responsible for making irrigation schemes in the state idle. One of the main reasons is damage to the schemes by natural calamities like floods and erosion.”

According to a government report, adequate funds are not available for the operation and maintenance of irrigation schemes. The availability of groundwater in the state falls into the safe category, but in spite of the rich resources of water in the state, irrigation has become highly essential because of adverse and unpredictable weather conditions.

At present, 3,913 major, medium, and minor irrigation schemes are in the state. Apart from these, the department has also created 45,168 hectares of irrigation potential under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) and Har Khet Ko Paani (HKKP) tube well schemes. However, most of such schemes remain inoperative due to lack of repair, erratic power supply, schemes going out of order due to floods, theft of motor pumps, and whatnot.

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