Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh said the government started PMKSY to provide a permanent solution from drought. Three ministries are implementing this scheme in mission mode and the Ministry of Water Resources is leading the project. PMKSY aims not only to create irrigation sources but also to create protected irrigation by harnessing rainwater at micro level through ‘Jal Sanchay’ and ‘Jal Sinchan’. He said it today at the concluding session of India Water Week-2017 organized at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The theme of the program at the concluding session was "Water and Energy for Inclusive Growth". Shri Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation,; Dr. Satyapal Singh, Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Minister of State in the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation; Shri Arujn Ram Meghawal Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resource, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, and Dr. Amarjit Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, were present on the occasion.
The Minister said that India is home to 17% of the world population and 11.3% of the livestock population and only 4 percent of the world's water resources are in the country. In such a situation, we have an unprecedented challenge of providing water to such a large human and livestock population.He said we have a total of 200.8 million hectares of agricultural land in the country out of which only 95.8 million hectares is irrigated, which is only 48 percent of the total. Therefore, it is a challenge to provide water to 52% of non-irrigated land and make it suitable for adoption of advanced farming. It’s possible only through proper water management.He said PMKSY has been started to provide a permanent solution from drought. Three ministries are implementing this scheme in mission mode and the Ministry of Water Resources is leading the project. PMKSY aims not only to create irrigation sources but also to create protected irrigation by harnessing rainwater at micro level through ‘Jal Sanchay’ and ‘Jal Sinchan’.He said that the government is investing Rs.50,000 crore for a period of five years (2015-16 to 2019-20) to develop complete irrigation supply chain, water resources, distribution network and farm-level application solutions to achieve the target of water for every farm.He said that for the year 2015-16, Rs 555.5 crore has been released for drought mitigation and district irrigation scheme.
Under this, Rs.175 crore has been allocated for the material for construction of water harvesting structures under MNREGA and Rs.259 crore was allocated to the states for water recharge, drought mitigation and micro-water storage construction in 219 drought-affected districts and 1071 highly drugged blocks identified by the Central Ground Water Board. In the year 2016-17, Rs.520.90 crore was released for drought mitigation measures. So far, 56,226 water harvesting structures, 1,13,976 hectare irrigation capacity and 675 district irrigation schemes have been prepared.He informed that the Ministry of Agriculture has been given the responsibility of implementing Per Drop More Crop scheme. During the Financial Year 2011-14, Rs. 3699.45 crore was distributed to the states for micro-irrigation and 16.14 lakh hectare area was brought under micro-irrigation. While Rs.4509 crore was released during 2014-17 and a total of 18.38 lakh hectare area has been brought under micro-irrigation, which is the highest area so far.He said that during the year 2016-17, Rs1991.17 crores was allocated for Per Drop More Crop under PMKSY which is 28% more than the Rs1,556.73 crore allocated in the year 2015-16. In 2015-16, 5.7 lakh hectare area was brought under micro-irrigation, while 8.39 lakh hectare area was brought under micro irrigation during 2016-17, which is the highest so far. The Minister said Rs.3400 crore has been distributed for Per Drop More Crop scheme for the year 2017-18, and till September Rs1601.40 crore has been released. The target is to bring 12 lakh hectare area under micro-irrigation during 2017-18.PMKSY Scheme is being implemented in the mission mode with the help of Command Area Development to complete 99 major and medium irrigation projects covering 76.03 lakh hectares in a phased manner till December 2019.