Punjab among top states with over 100% ground water extraction
🔴 States in high (more than 100%) and medium (70-100%) category are required to focus on both medium and long term ground water recharge and conservation plans.
The residents maintain that the city is already drawing more than the mandated national norm. Their question is: "But do we really need continuous water supply even when the consumption is already high?" (Representational) WHILE THE overall rate of ground water development (ratio of annual ground water draft and net annual ground water availability) in the country is 63 per cent, Punjab is among the top four states where this ratio, which signifies the rate of extraction of ground water, is more than 100 per cent. This was revealed in the Economic Survey of India (ESI) released Monday by the Union government ahead of the annual Budget.
States in high (more than 100%) and medium (70-100%) category are required to focus on both medium and long term ground water recharge and conservation plans.
Also, Punjab is among the three bottom states where there is negative growth in service sector.
Punjab recorded negative growth of – 9.40% in the service sector in 2020-21, while it had 5.60% and 6.95% growth in the year 2019-20 and 2018-19, respectively.
During 2020-21, the services Gross State Value Added (GSVA), which is the value of services produced in the economy, contracted by almost 11 per cent (-10.95%) in Rajasthan, and by almost 10 per cent in Jharkhand (-9.99 %) and Punjab (-9.40%).
On the other hand, Sikkim achieved the highest growth of 11.71% services GSVA during 2020-21. Not a single state with available data came close to Sikkim in service sector growth.
In MGNREGS employment, which is directly related to the movement of migrant labour from source states, demand was higher for migrant recipient states like Punjab for most months in 2021 over 2020. This as large number of migrants come here to work in agriculture sector mainly.
Punjab was also among the top four states faulted for causing ‘air pollution’ due to stubble burning along with states like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and the NCT of Delhi.
Under a government scheme aimed at Punjab, Haryana, UP and Delhi, during 2020-21, 51,988 agricultural machines were distributed and 15,106 Custom Hiring Centres were established to tackle stubble burning, the ESI said. Punjab, meanwhile, recorded 71,304 stubble burning incidents in 2021.
Points to Punjab Act for stubble burning
The Economic Survey said that closing of the gap between paddy harvesting and Rabi season sowing is a likely factor that encourages farmers to burn stubble, adding that it may be related to restrictions on early transplanting of Kharif paddy, the sowing of which cannot take place before June 10.
In the Survey, images comparing the Kharif crop (mainly paddy) cycle in Moga district of Punjab have been from 2005 and 2021. The images in 2021 show that Kharif sowing cycle has shifted ahead by around two to three weeks causing the Kharif harvest to almost coincide with Rabi sowing in November.
“The closing of the gap is a likely factor that encourages farmers to burn stubble and may be related to restrictions on early transplanting of Kharif paddy,” said the Survey.
It added: “These restrictions were introduced in 2009 in order to reduce pumping of groundwater but may have had the unintended consequence of damaging air quality.”
Punjab Preservation of Sub-soil Act 2009, which mandatorily delayed paddy transplanting beyond June 10, was brought in 2009 to save Punjab’s groundwater so that farmer could sow it close to pre-monsoon period so as to lessen the burden on ground water.
Agri experts in Punjab, however, said that not this Act, but there were other factors responsible for this shorter gap and one among them was huge area under long duration paddy variety in around 8-10 districts, including Moga, district of the state.
According to Punjab remote Sensing Centre (PRSC) at Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Ludhiana, which is monitoring the fire incidents on behalf of Punjab pollution Control Board (PPCB), in 2021, Moga recorded the second highest fire incidents which were 6,515 in the state with 54% burning of its total paddy area, which was around 1.64 lakh hectares. Out of the fields burnt, more than 65,000 hectares was under the long duration PUSA-44 variety of paddy. This variety takes 160 days including the 30 days of nursery which is transplanted into the main field.
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