Nagaland receives INR 92.71 crore for irrigation projects

DIMAPUR — The Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (DoWR, RD and GR) under the Ministry of Jal Shakti has released a total of INR 92.71 crore in central assistance for the fiscal year 2023-2024 to the state of Nagaland.

This funding is for the creation and restoration of irrigation potential under the Surface Minor Irrigation (SMI) and Repair, Renovation & Restoration of Water Bodies (RRR of WBs) schemes, which are components of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana—Har Khet Ko Pani (PMKSY-HKKP).

Raj Bhushan Choudhary, the Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti, provided this information in a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha on August 5.

The minister stated that the year-wise release of central assistance under the SMI and RRR of WBs component of the PMKSY-HKKP for Nagaland is as follows: INR 20.46 crore in 2019-20, INR 35.99 crore in 2020-21, INR 40.89 crore in 2021-22, and INR 21.01 crore in 2022-23.

Further, the continuation of PMKSY-HKKP for the fiscal years 2021-22 to 2025-26 was approved by the Union Cabinet in December 2021, with a budget outlay of INR 4,580 crore and a targeted irrigation potential of 4.50 lakh hectares for the SMI and RRR of WBs schemes.

The minister mentioned that in the 6th Minor Irrigation (MI) Census 2023, a total of 231.4 lakh MI schemes were enumerated. Of these, 219.3 lakh (94.8%) were ground water schemes, including dug wells, shallow tube wells, medium tube wells, and deep tube wells, while 12.1 lakh (5.2%) were surface water schemes, including surface flow and surface lift systems.

The main objective of the MI Census is to build a comprehensive and reliable database in the minor irrigation sector for effective planning and policymaking. The census covers all groundwater and surface water schemes with a culturable command area of up to 2,000 hectares in the states and union territories.

According to the 6th MI Census, based on data from the reference year 2017-18, Nagaland has 19,455 MI schemes, with 0.2% (35) classified as ground water schemes and 99.8% (19,420) as surface water schemes. This represents an increase of 13.7% compared to the 17,106 schemes recorded in the 5th MI Census for Nagaland.

The state has reported a decline of 12.5% (5) in ground water schemes and an increase of 13.8% (2,354) in surface water schemes during the 6th MI Census, compared to the 40 ground water schemes and 17,066 surface water schemes recorded in the 5th census.