"Despite of heavy public expenditure on canals, our governments have not been able to reduce the groundwater depletion."Critically examine the issue.
Hint: The key reason is widening gap between irrigation potential created and actually utilized. The gap is increasing because of several reasons such as
- slow pace of CAD works
- depletion of professional staff in state irrigation agencies
- paucity of non plan funds available with irrigation departments resulting in decline in operation and maintenance of MMI projects and growing default maintenance.
Closing the IPC‐IPU gap is also a “low hanging fruit” which can be picked by investing in CAD works, ARM projects and irrigation management reforms.
Topics: GS-III: Different Types of Irrigation and Irrigation Systems