The government has taken an in-principle decision to introduce a uniform water pricing policy for the whole country. A meeting of the state Chief Ministers has been called to discuss the modalities.
Water in rural areas used for irrigational purposes is presently priced very cheap and besides prices vary from region to region. The view is that if water is priced reasonably, it would not only raise revenue to supplement the cost of irrigational projects but would also discourage farmers to draw excess water.
Union water resources minister C P Thakur says the matter came up for discussion at the recent national water policy's meet which was attended by Chief Ministers also. But a decision was deferred because some Chief Ministers felt that they have some cases going on in the supreme court and their interest would be adversely affected if any decision in the matter is taken at this stage.
He said uniform water pricing is a " serious proposal" and even the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee supports it. The next meeting of the Chief Ministers may be called in July if the Prime Minister is available and then the matter would be discussed threadbare. "An in-principle-decision has already been taken. What is required is its implementation in consultation with the chief ministers", he emphasised.
An important issue to be decided is whether water should be moved from the State List to the Concurrent List of the Constitution. It would then become convenient for the Centre to prepare the water price model crop-wise and area-wise covering the whole country and take such other initiatives. Another issue to be decided is how to generate funds for the water projects and how much of it would be shared by the states.
