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`Correct policy to stem deceleration'

Special Correspondent

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman advocates user charges on water

NEW DELHI: In a veiled attack on the previous regimes at the Centre for neglecting farm sector reforms and growth, the Planning Commission on Monday advised the UPA Government to "correct" the farm policies to stem the deceleration prevailing since the end of 1996.

In his presentation at the National Development Council (NDC) meeting here, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, projected a grim picture of the farm sector and outlined the corrective steps required for higher growth while detailing the massive investments that were required to improve the country's infrastructure for achieving a higher overall growth rate. "One of the areas where corrective policies are urgently needed is agriculture, where it is absolutely essential to reverse the deceleration witnessed in the years after 1996," Dr. Ahluwalia said while urging the Government to have a re-look at the efficacy of the existing strategies for both irrigated and dry land areas.

In particular, Dr. Ahluwalia made out a case for imposing user charges on water as the current levy was only a fifth of the operations and maintenance costs and the rural poor had not benefited from it. Free or cheap power, he noted, was adding to the problem of excessive groundwater withdrawal and banning new tube-wells would not help in the situation.

Noting that the Mid-Term Appraisal had sought a more rational power pricing policy, he said electricity for the farm sector should be "priced differently" in areas where the groundwater stood severely depleted. "The policy of subsidising micro-irrigation should also be linked to groundwater status so as to promote these systems where groundwater depletion is most serious," he said. Stressing that it was necessary to develop a coherent strategy for water conservation and management in the rain-fed areas, Dr. Ahluwalia reminded the Chief Ministers that earlier, the country had many programmes aimed at conserving through check dams, ponds and artificial recharge of wells. "But these schemes have suffered from a multiplicity of departments handling them," apart from poor knowledge inputs into the programme design and inadequate involvement of the community, he said. Dr. Ahluwalia stressed on the "massive" infrastructure investments required in sectors such as power, roads, ports, airports and the Railways.

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