Gujarat CM holds high-level meeting on water situation

With a view to cope up with possible water scarcity in the State during summer season, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani held a high-level meeting on Saturday to review prevailing water situation.

Water resource minister Parbat Patel, Chief Secretary JN Singh and other top officials of irrigation and water supply departments remained present in the meeting chaired by Chief Minister Rupani. 

The meeting was also held in the backdrop of warning given by various farmer organizations to stage five-day protest in state capital Gandhinagar during the second week of March. These organizations are demanding debt waiver, payment of crop insurance, Narmada Water allocation and other agriculture related issues. 

Protest of farmers will be held during March 12 to 16. Around 30 leaders of farmers held a meeting to plan the protest in Gandhinagar. According to them apart from irrigation water, issue of Minimum Support Price (MSP) would also be raised during the protest. Representatives of Khedut Samaj-Gujarat, Gujarat Kisan Sangathan and Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sabha attended the meeting.

Several organizations in the state have been seeking farm debt waiver of farmers in the state that is estimated at Rs 70,000 crore. Opposition Congress party had made farm debt waiver as its electoral issue in the last Assembly polls of 2017, ruling BJP was quiet on the issue.

It is worth mentioning that in its recent budgetary announcement, the BJP ruled Rupani government announced a provision of Rs 500 crore for interest-free farm loans, Rs 1100 crore for crop insurance, Rs 235 crore for MSP and Rs 2800 crore for providing drinking water in tribal areas. During the on-going budget session of Gujarat Assembly, Energy Minister Saurabh Patel informed the House that the state government had approved 1.22 lakh new power connections for agriculture. The government has set aside Rs 1,921 crore for power-related plans, he added.