Water key to rural growth

The budgetary proposal to renovate water-holding structures across rural India and develop water harvesting bodies has been welcomed by a wide spectrum of industry leaders representing sectors ranging from plantations to paper.

K Vaidyanath, executive director of ITC Limited, which has been in the forefront of water projects in some states, said, "We are happy to note that some of ITC's rural development initiatives are in sync with the vision orientation in the Union Budget 2004, especially those relating to water management, rural education, empowerment of women and public-private partnership for the development of agriculture."

The watershed development programme of ITC had created 110 percolation tanks, 131 bunds and check dams and 300 farm ponds, with 8,000 hectares irrigated.

ITC would take up in the next decade 1,000 percolation tanks, 300 bunds and check dams, 5000 farm ponds and 50,000 hectares for irrigation.

RPG Enterprises vice-chairman Sanjiv Goenka said the emphasis on agriculture and food processing sectors should impact the retail sector positively. The expected increase in consumption would drive growth of organised retailing, he added.

The Finance Bill noted that more than a million water structures existed and about 500,000 of them were used for irrigation.

The Bill proposed a scheme to repair, renovate and restore all the water bodies directly linked to agriculture through pilot projects in at least five districts, one each in each of the five regions. The estimated project cost was Rs 100 crore. Over seven to ten years, water storage capacity would be doubled.

A nationwide water harvesting scheme would be launched as well. The scheme would cover one lakh irrigation units at an average cost of Rs 20,000 per unit in the hands of small farmers, with financing from Nabard. The scheme outlay was Rs 100 crore.