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After the initial success of the Uttar Pradesh Atal Bhujal Yojana, the Yogi Adityanath government has decided to extend it across the state.
The scheme, which aims at ensuring public participation and improvement in groundwater conservation and management, was introduced as a pilot project in 10 districts Mahoba, Jhansi, Banda, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot, Lalitpur, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Baghpat and Meerut.
"After getting a favourable response, the government has decided to implement the scheme in other 65 districts as well. Now, the scheme will be implemented all over the state," a senior official said.
A government order (GO) in this regard has been issued. It says that barring the work under convergence, the budget on other works will be borne by the departmental budget.
Out of the 826 blocks in the state, the scheme was implemented in only 26 groundwater-stressed blocks but from April 1, 2021, all 826 blocks would be covered by this scheme, a government statement said.
The scheme has been designed with the principal objective of strengthening the institutional framework for participatory groundwater management and for bringing about behavioural changes at the community level for sustainable groundwater resource management. Public participation through tangible support as well as on awareness level has been the major component of this scheme.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's sustained efforts to double the income of farmers will also be served by this scheme as improvement in groundwater profile will automatically fulfill the irrigation requirements.
"With this focus, 10 districts, many of them from the Bundelkhand region, were taken up in the first go as these were the areas where water management was required the most," the official said.
The scheme, which has to be implemented till 2026, will take up development of water security plan in the first year, cover 75 over-exploited blocks in second year, critical blocks in the third and semi-critical blocks in the fourth year.