Punjab Government on Wednesday decided to install metres on tube-wells. The decision, aimed at saving State’s groundwater, was taken during the meeting of Council of Ministers, headed by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh.
Besides, the Cabinet has also given it go ahead to the proposal of asking as many as 26,000 Class I officers to give their property details in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha till January 31.
Informing about the decisions after the meeting, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal said that the farmers would soon get metres installed on their tube-well and they will be given direct subsidy amount.
Cabinet has approved a pilot research project on Direct Benefit Transfer for Electricity (DBTE) for 990 agriculture consumers.
To begin with, the Government would launch the system in five districts.
Manpreet said that there are about 14 lakh tube-wells at present across the state. “At present, the Government is giving subsidy of Rs 6,200 crores. The decision is taken primarily to save water and electricity in the state which will benefit all,” he added.
He added that apart from that, the cabinet has also approved a proposal to give up power subsidy. “A farmer can give up as much subsidy he wanted as per his own choice,” he added.
During the meeting, Capt Amarinder had also appealed to the big farmers to voluntarily give up their power subsidy to contribute to the government’s efforts to check water depletion while underlining the fact that the move would save the vital ground water resource.
Expressing serious concern at the receding ground water levels in the state, the Cabinet decided to try DBTE on a pilot basis as it could play a significant role in checking the decline in the water table although there was no monetary benefit to the State from the move.
Under the DBTE pilot project, the Punjab State Power Corporation limited (PSPCl) has tied up with J-PAl South Asia and the World Bank to evaluate DBTE for 990 Agriculture Pumpset (AP) connections.
The beneficiary farmers would be paid subsidy in cash, based on cost of power for irrigating the crops as finalised by experts from Punjab Agriculture University, Punjab State Farmers Commission along with Agriculture and Water Resources departments.
The farmers would be issued bills for electricity and allowed to retain the savings, that is subsidy minus the bill amount.
The spokesperson clarified that the move would not place any financial burden on the already beleaguered farmers, rather it would incentivise monetary savings and conservation of water.
The implementation of the DBTE scheme would help the state in promoting crop diversification, saving of precious groundwater, accurate energy accounting resulting in rationalisation of subsidy, checking Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses, besides curbing of wasteful energy consumption.
The farmers, in turn, will be benefitted through regular income by saving electricity and promoting crop diversification.
In its other decision relating to power subsidy surrender by rich farmers, the Cabinet decided to give such farmers the option to give up their AP subsidy by 50 percent or complete subsidy, that is 100 percent for which they would be charged Rs 202 per BHP per month or Rs 403 per BHP per month respectively.