The opposition Congress, on Thursday, demanded that power connections should be provided to farmers in 57 talukas included in dark zones.
The Opposition Congress, on Thursday, demanded that power connections should be provided to farmers in 57 talukas included in dark zones.
Raising the issue in the state assembly, Congress MLA from Borsad, Amitkumar Chavda said that farmers in the 57 dark zone talukas were facing several problems in irrigation due to lack of power connections.
"The farmers in dark zone talukas have not been provided power connections for many years due to lower groundwater levels. But, it is high time, the state government prepares a special scheme and provides power connections to farmers in these areas at the earliest," Chavda said in the assembly.
Based on the groundwater table, the state government has classified 40 talukas as over-exploited, seven talukas as saline and ten talukas as dark. All 57 talukas, however, are commonly classified as dark zone talukas.
Some of the dark zone talukas are Mehsana, Unjha, Patan, Siddhpur, Gandhinagar, Kalol, Mansa, Dehgam, Idar, City Dascroi, Sanand, Ankleshwar, Visnagar, Vijapur, Radhanpur, Lakhtar, Palanpur, Deesa, Dholka, Porbandar, among others.
The Congress MLA criticized the government for double standards on its guidelines for providing power connections in dark zones.
"Industries in dark zone talukas are freely given power connections, and there are no restrictions on these units drawing groundwater. But, farmers, who need the water more, are denied connections under the pretext of critical groundwater table," Chavda said further.
Another Congress MLA, Jawahar Chavda from Manavadar, said the government has banned power connections to farmers since 2003, and rued that no steps have been taken to reverse the fall in groundwater levels.
Jawahar Chavda said that the state government was making tall claims about increase in groundwater levels due to building of thousands of check-dams, groundwater recharging, water conservation, among other steps, but not a single taluka has been removed from the dark zone list in all these years.
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