Power companies can fix tariff to lift water from surface sources: GERC

In effect,this will legalise pumping water from the canal network.

Farmers’ groups and experts say the tariff rate will not be as economical as the use of diesel sets and may not see many switching over to the drip-irrigation method.

In September,the state government cracked down on farmers in Surendranagar for pumping water from the Narmada Canal branch,confiscated their diesel pump sets,and even deployed State Reserve Police (SRP) personnel along the canal stretch.

In sharp contrast,the latest proposal from the state power utility companies is a new tariff structure for low-tension connection for lift irrigation schemes. This is for the installations having a connected load up to 125 BHP (brake horse power) requiring electricity supply for lifting water from surface sources such as canal,river,dam and supplying water directly to the fields of the farmers covered under this category.

The energy charges have been fixed at Rs 1.60 per Kwh along with a fixed charge per BHP per month. The logic behind this is to provide high-pressure drip irrigation facility to the farmers near the Sardar Sarovar Project,only if the method is drip irrigation,or is allowed by the Irrigation Department.

Sanjay Nandan Agrawal,Secretary of GERC,said: “The power connection will be based on the permission given by the Irrigation Department. Even farmers lifting water through pump sets can register for power connection if they are following drip irrigation. It is not for flood irrigation.”

Jetha Patel,a farmer from Surendranagar,said: “Earlier,farmers were charged as per the industrial rate. The new tariff will benefit farmers who were not getting connection for drip irrigation. This will regularise water pumping from canals,for which we had to use diesel pump sets otherwise.”

Laxman Patoliya,a farmer associated with the Bhartiya Kisan Sangh said: “The new tariff for agriculture will not divert people from flood irrigation to drip irrigation. It is just an effort to regularise the lifting of water. Even lifting of water with this price will prove costlier.”

Agrawal added: “The total number of connections and other details will be available only after the utility companies file a review petition by December-end.”

Experts though have some reservations about the plan. A recent report by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) showed that farmers were selling water to other farmers in the interiors where the branch canals were not constructed. The report said that around 75,000 diesel pumps were in use in the SSP command area of Gujarat.

Tushaar Shah,a water management expert,said: “I am not sure how this step will help the farmers. Only a handful of farmers will be ready for such high rates as the tariff is not feasible.”

SSNNL Chairman N V Patel said: “The tariff has nothing to do with the farmers who are lifting water from the canals.”