| LOK SABHA |
The census of Minor Irrigation projects was undertaken with reference year 1986-87. Minor Irrigation projects in the States are undertaken by various Departments and Organizations under different developmental schemes. A good number of projects are commissioned by the cultivators themselves with their own resources. In order to have a sound data base of Minor Irrigation projects in the country, first Minor Irrigation Census was organized by Ministry of Water Resources in collaboration with States/UTs with reference year 1986-87. In the Minor Irrigation Census, information is collected for 5 types of Minor Irrigation projects namely Dug wells, Shallow tube wells, Deep Tube wells, Surface flow and Surface lift schemes. The items on which information is collected are location of the project, ownership, source of finance, physical characteristics of the project, utilization status, reasons for under utilization, water lifting and water distribution devices used, culturable command area, irrigation potential created and irrigation potential utilized during reference period. The report of the first census was released in 1993. The report contains state-wise and district wise tables on number of schemes according to various characteristics.
After the first census, two more censuses of Minor Irrigation projects have been organized by the Ministry. The Second MI Census with reference year 1993-94 was completed and the Report was published in March 2001. The 3rd MI Census with reference year 2000-01 was launched in the year 2000 in 33 States/UTs. All India Report for the census was released in November 2005. The results of the 2nd and 3rd census are available on Ministry of Water Resources' website: www.mowr.gov.in. The 4th MI Census with reference year 2006-07 has been launched in all States/UTs in the country. Currently the States/UTs are in the process of training/data collection.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Water Resources, Shri Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav in response to a question by Shri Mahavir Bhagora in the Lok Sabha today.
SK/BS