Jhajjar farmers to get subsidised solar pumpsets for irrigation

Ravinder Saini

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Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, November 22

Farmers of the Salhavaas block here will soon be able to irrigate their farms using solar pump sets. The Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (HAREDA) has chosen Salhavaas for its pilot project of making the block diesel engine-free.

Sources said under the project, HAREDA would provide farmers with submersible solar pump sets on 90 per cent subsidy so that they could switch to using solar pumps instead of diesel engines for irrigating their fields.

The sources added that Salhavaas had been selected as it had the highest 670 diesel engines across the state, which were being used for irrigation purpose.

As per the policy, farmers having agricultural land in their names would only be able to get solar pump sets at subsidised rates.

“Yes, HAREDA will run its pilot project in the Salhavaas block to encourage farmers to use solar pumps to irrigate their fields. Farmers will have to pay merely 10 per cent cost of the pump while the government will bear the remaining 90 per cent cost,” said Jhajjar Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ramesh Chand Bidhan.

The DC said applications had been invited from farmers of the block, who had thus far been using diesel engines to irrigate their fields. They would be able to get submersible solar pump sets of 2 and 5 horsepower at subsidised rate. The farmers would have to attach mutation document of the land (farad) to the application before submitting it with the office of Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) in Jhajjar city, he added.

“The farmers will have to pay Rs 18,495 for surface solar pump set of 2 horsepower, Rs 23,500 for 2 horsepower sets and Rs 43,800 for 5 horsepower device,” said Bidhan, adding that only applications had been invited at present.