State mulls project to bring 60,000 hectare land under minor irrigation

Kolkata: The state government is mulling a project to bring in another 60,000 hectare of agricultural land under minor irrigation that will benefit more 1.5 lakh farmers.

This comes after the Mamata Banerjee government has successfully brought 2 lakh hectare agricultural land under irrigation facility under the "Jal Dharo Jal Bharo'' scheme that already benefitted more than 5 lakh small and marginal farmers across the state.

"Jal Dharo Jal Bharo" is one of the dream projects of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee giving emphasis on harvest and conserving rainwater across the state. It helps in farming, rearing animals in farms and even at many places used for drinking purposes as well. To make the people aware of its utility the state government observes Water Conservation Day that was on Sunday.

The state Water Resources Investigation and Development department is the nodal department of the "Jal Dharo Jal Bharo" project. The upcoming project will be taken up in collaboration with the World Bank. "Preliminary talks with the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) and authorities of the World Bank are already held in this regard. The Centre has also almost agreed to allow World Bank to give the soft loan to take up the project," said a senior official of the department adding that if everything goes as planned then the work to bring 60,000 hectares of agricultural land under minor irrigation will start in 2021-22 financial year and it would take four years time to complete the same.

Already, the Water Resources Investigation and Development department has implemented a project that was taken up in collaboration with the World Bank that had provided Rs 1127 crore (150 million US dollar) while the state government had provided the remaining of the 200 million US dollar project.

The five-year scheme ended in March 2020 ensuring development of irrigation facilities on around 75,000 hectare of land benefitting 1.5 lakh farmers. Besides developing irrigation facilities, farmers were also provided with agricultural inputs including fertilisers and even experts on agriculture were engaged to provide updated information on technology in the sector to farmers.

Though the World Bank project has come to an end, the state government has taken initiative to carry on with the same till the new project begins in 2021-22 fiscal. In a bid to carry on with the project in the 2020-21 financial year, the Mamata Banerjee government has given a sanction of Rs 300 crore. It will help in bringing another 10,000 agricultural land under minor irrigation that will benefit roughly around 40,000 farmers. "Out of it, already work of around Rs 50 crore has been implemented and we are hopeful of completing the same by the end of this fiscal," the official said.

Several works for minor irrigation in agricultural land were also taken against the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).