Assam Irrigation department schemes shelved in hundreds

Anomalies were large-scale, especially in the minor irrigation schemes. The department has on records that as many as 2,000 irrigations schemes were at various stages of construction. After a thorough scrutiny of the schemes, only around 300 of them have been taken up, shelving the rest.

Assam is blessed with irrigation potential of around 27 lakh hectares of land, and of them the potential of minor irrigation schemes is around seven lakh hectares. And minor irrigation schemes are the ones that were entangled in large-scale anomalies during the previous government.

An official source said that approval for irrigation schemes had been rampant overlooking many a mandatory criterion like feasibility, ground reality, financial sanctions and whatnot. The design was only to benefit contractors, not farmers.

"A year back, we scrutinized the whole lot of irrigation schemes. It came to light that many important criteria were overlooked while sanctioning schemes. While the constructions of many schemes were not started long after their sanctioning, many other schemes were stuck at various stages of construction for years together. As if to cap it all, while many of the completed schemes got damaged before irrigating a single drop of water, many of the approved schemes are not at all necessary where they are located. A huge amount had been spent for such schemes that points to a nexus between contractors and a section of officials in the department. Many of the 2,000 schemes were on papers only. After a rigorous scrutiny, we found 207 schemes are almost complete and 111 others are over 60 per cent complete. We had to abandon rest of the schemes.

"Official data of 2017-18 show 2,028 major, medium and minor irrigation schemes as functioning and as many as 2,531 as non-functioning. The reasons shown for non-functioning irrigation schemes outnumbering the functioning ones were – lack of funds for maintenance of the schemes, erratic power supply, damage of canal system, theft of motors and pump sets etc."

Since 1993 the department started collection of irrigation service charge from the beneficiaries at rates ranging from Rs 20-100 per bigha for different crops like paddy, jute etc. However, the beneficiaries are reluctant to pay power charge.

When asked if many of the irrigation schemes were approved without feasibility consideration, State Irrigation Commissioner Rakesh Kumar said, "Many irrigation schemes were approved without taking their feasibility into consideration. Such major lapses scripted the department's failure to meet the irrigation target. Now we've streamlined the schemes with support from the Minister heading the department."

Also watch: Morning Bulletin | 12th June, 2020