Due to the over-exploitation of groundwater, the water level is going down in many areas of Haryana by 1 to 1.5 meters every year.
Sharing this in the Haryana Legislative Assembly on the first day of the monsoon session, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday said the groundwater level is continuously going down.
“Due to the over-exploitation of water, a situation of water crisis would arise in the coming time. In many areas, the water level is going down by 1 to 1.5 meters every year, which is a matter of serious concern. If this is not stopped, then there is a possibility that a serious crisis situation would arise in the coming time,” he said.
He said that the government has provided an incentive of Rs 7000 per acre to the farmers who do not sow paddy so as to ensure the situation of water crisis does not arise. Under this scheme, farmers have sown alternative crops other than paddy in one lakh acres. This year the target is to increase it to two lakh acres.
Khattar said after the announcement on 27 December 2018, thousands of people had applied for tubewell connections within four days. After this, they were asked to deposit Rs 30,000, then out of 84,000 people, only 56,000 deposited the said amount. Our priority is to provide tubewell connections to the depositors, he said.
The CM, however, said tubewell connections will be issued immediately to those adopting micro-irrigation. He said that a provision has been made to provide 85 per cent subsidy to those adopting micro-irrigation.