(a) whether a major part of an Agricultural land is still dependent on monsoon for
irrigation;
(b) if so, the scheme to irrigate the said land;
(c) whether the Government has prepared any programme to increase irrigated areas;
(d) if so, the details of amount released, expenditure incurred and results achieved
during the last three years in this regard, State-wise and Year-wise; and
(e) the efforts made to achieve results early for the said works?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES (SHRI JAI PRAKASH NARAYAN YADAV)
(a) According to the Land Use Statistics for 2003-04 compiled by Ministry of Agriculture, net
sown area in the country is estimated to be 140.9 million hectare and net irrigated area
(NIA) is 55.1 million hectare i.e. 39.10%.
(b) to (e) Irrigation being a State subject, irrigation projects are conceived, planned
and implemented by the State Governments as per their own priority. However, Government of
India provides central assistance to the State Governments for completion of ongoing
irrigation projects under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP). The AIBP
criteria have been relaxed and procedure simplified to cover more projects under this
programme. The state wise details of the Central Loan Assistance/Grant released during the
last three year are at Annex.