States told to draft action plan to tackle water shortage

Giving details of the meeting attended by the Chief Ministers of all drought-hit states with PM Narendra Modi, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said, “All states have been requested to undertake a major drive for the construction of farm ponds, adopt micro irrigation and diversify into crops requiring less water.”

“The states have been asked to promote water storage, water conservation practices and rejuvenate water bodies. The drought-prone states will also incentivise solar pumps for irrigation,” Singh said.

Singh said the decisions follow meetings between PM Modi and Chief Ministers of 10 drought-hit states over the past two weeks.

Large parts of India are in the grip of a drought after two successive years of below average rain. So far, 266 districts in 11 states have been declared drought-hit, the government told Parliament last month. By the Centre’s estimate about 330 million people are affected.

At the meet, it was also decided that the states would prioritise water use, promote recycling waste water and use it for agriculture purpose in peri-urban areas, he said.

States have also been asked to cover sugarcane under micro-irrigation in a phased manner and farmers would be incentivised for its substitution, said Singh, adding that special emphasis were laid on reviving defunct traditional/historical step wells in different parts of the country and all water bodies to be numbered by assigning a unique identity.