Centre raises concern over paddy in Punjab

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 21

The cropping pattern in Punjab, particularly the cultivation of water-intensive paddy, is under the Centre’s scrutiny at the highest level.

The concern was raised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a recent meeting of the Council on Climate Change in the presence of senior ministers Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu, Uma Bharti, Radha Mohan Singh, Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goyal.

The concern — paddy cultivation and the damage it was doing to groundwater in Punjab — surfaced again today at a review meeting headed by Bharti on the recently-held India Water Week and discussions on the importance of public participation in water conservation and ‘jal kranti’.

Officials say when the point about increased involvement of water associations for better management of the precious resource was being discussed, the matter related to providing more water to Haryana and UP canals was also raised.

In this context, Bharti talked about the deteriorating groundwater situation in Punjab and the Prime Minister’s concern.