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Punjab to set up 25,000 tube well connections

General category would be allotted 15,000 connections (60 per cent), priority categories 7,500 (30 per cent), besides 2,500 (10 per cent) to the miscellaneous category

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Vijay C Roy New Delhi/ Chandigarh
In what might bring relief to farmers and further strengthen irrigation in the state, Punjab has decided to release 25,000 tube well connections in the current year. More, to clear the backlog of general category applications, 50,000 extra connections were proposed to be released through outsourcing or otherwise, in view of the financial constraints of Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) during 2011-12.

Giving the category-wise break-up of 25,000 agricultural pump (AP) connections to be released in a year, the spokesperson said the general category would be allotted 15,000 connections (60 per cent), priority categories 7,500 (30 per cent), besides 2,500 (10 per cent) to the miscellaneous category. The policy further stipulated that under the general category, 60 per cent of the connections (9,000) would be allotted to the applicants comprising small farmers who have land holding of up to 2.5 acres and without any tube well connection, 20 per cent (3,000) to marginal farmers who have land holding between 2.5-5 acres, whereas the rest (3,000) would be for farmers who have a land holding of more than 5 acres.
 

Meanwhile, with a view to arrest the alarming trend of over exploitation of the ground water and ensure its judicious use in agriculture sector, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal approved the Agriculture Power (AP) Tube Wells Policy stipulating guidelines for the release of electric connections for Agricultural pump sets in the state for the year 2013-14.

Divulging the details of said policy, a spokesperson of the chief minister's office said that the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission has mandated the state government to decide the number of Agricultural Pump sets (AP) connections to be released each year in the state for reasons of ecology, inadequate ground water potential, declining water table or any other reason. The new AP policy guidelines have been formulated in the backdrop of state government's ambitious program of Crop diversification besides popularizing drip/ micro irrigation amongst farmers especially the vegetable and fruit growers with a thrust on conservation of water, the state's only available natural resource which was becoming scarce due to ever depleting water table. Reckless use of ground water has rendered 45 blocks in Punjab as over exploited blocks as revealed in the latest report of Central Ground water authority.

Under the policy, it would be incumbent on part of the state government to fix the target for the release of AP connections annually in the beginning of every year and in any case the total number of AP connections released by the PSPCL in a year would not exceed the target fixed by the state government.

It may be recalled that the SAD-BJP alliance government since its inception in 2007 has released as many as 204982 AP connections till February 2013.

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First Published: Jun 13 2013 | 8:43 PM IST

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