The Indira Gandhi Canal (IGNP), one of the biggest canal networks in the world, represents the largest ‘public investment’ by the post-colonial developmental State in the state of Rajasthan. It is proposed to offer solutions to many important and long standing developmental challenges of the Thar. IGNP is not only the largest irrigation scheme in the state of Rajasthan but it is also one of the first Command Area projects in
Some of the key local issues that make the case of the IGNP Stage II ‘specific’ in the national discourse on PIM are the unresolved problems related to the settlement of communities from heterogeneous socio-economic and cultural backgrounds; recognition of and provisions of basic amenities in the chak abadis; issues concerning sustainable ecological practices regarding land and water use; integration of livelihoods based on agriculture and livestock rearing; need for the diversification of non-farm livelihoods and introduction of new vocational skills; crisis of representation and efficacy of a range of formal and informal CBOs (Community Based Organisations) vis-à-vis the local Panchayats.
It is our submission that there is need to take into consideration the specificity of the IGNP Stage II to outline a workable and participatory concept of PIM. The current impasse has to give way to a concept of PIM that moves away from the ‘conventional notion’ of only limiting itself to institutional changes in water delivery and distribution, O&M of canal networks combined with the rehabilitation of the infrastructure.
Given the specificities of the local reality of the command area of the IGNP Stage II, to make the concept operational it would be meaningful to address issues of settlement of the settlers as well recognition of the chak abadis, equity, and ecological sustainability in a comprehensive and integrated manner.
The concept of PIM was officially adopted by the state of Rajasthan after 1995, and a Bill to this effect was issued in 1999. PIM has finally got a legal backing in the form of the Rajasthan Farmers’ Participation in Management of Irrigation Systems Act 2000 (followed by Rules 2002). However the field reality of the command area of Stage II has been such that so far the IGNP bureaucracy has evaded talking about PIM in an upfront manner.
PIM was introduced in these areas as a broad ranging concept with irrigation management as the central but not the only issue. The move by the CADA in 1996 to constitute Nahari Kshetra Vikas Evam Prabandhan Samiti (NKVS) as registered societies gave the command area settlers an opportunity to constitute their own institutions to work towards not only participatory irrigation management but ‘integrated development’ of their chaks and chak abadis as well. In a span of one and a half year around 82 such NKVS were registered in Stage II.
This was a recognition of the fact that there were many problems relating to ‘settlement’ that were pending before participatory irrigation management by farmers could realistically take off.
The NKVS were intended as popular elected bodies of allotee farmers having a legal existence either as a registered society, a joint stock company or a cooperative. They were user associations to be responsible for the management of the micro networks of the IGNP canal. As peoples’ institutions they were projected as a solution both to the corruption and callousness of the lower bureaucracy and the profiteering of the contractors. In fact ‘participation’ and ‘popular institutions’ became buzz words resounding in almost any important gathering about the project.
But the enthusiasm of the higher officials of the CADA was marred by the conservative attitudes of the lower bureaucracy that was resistant to change and wanted to function in much the old fashion. As a consequence not much could take off on the ground despite the fact that the NKVS on paper continue to have a mandate for ‘integrated development’. Even in the recent development programmes of CADA supported by the WFP, an agency that has been supporting the cause of settlement motivation in the Stage II for almost a decade now, the NKVS despite having the mandate and the legal legitimacy have been bypassed in the favor of a handful of NGOs.
Ever since the passing of the PIM Act of 2000, there has been confusion within the different IGNP Departments, mainly Irrigation & CADA about whose responsibility promotion of PIM really is. In this vacillating discourse on PIM in IGNP Stage II, farmers and chak Samites are caught between the officials of these two departments, who are themselves not very clear about how to further the process of promotion of PIM
A holistic and locally specific concept of PIM has to emerge from below, with the genuine participation of the farmers in ‘policy formulation and not just implementation’. PIM should not limit itself to be only a ‘prescription from the top’. While adhering to the broad framework outlined by the Rajasthan PIM Act 2000 and Rules 2002, we feel there is ample scope to come up with appropriate concepts of farmers’ institutions for the IGNP Stage II area.
And the processes of participatory policy formulation for PIM would be greatly energized with the active participation of civil society. This entails initiating processes of consultation / participation of the farmers in exploring the appropriate concepts of PIM most suited for the IGNP Stage II with not just mediations from grass-root NGOs but also by forging robust linkages with other civil society actors, both inside as well as outside the region.
Presentation in the CADA office in
(This note primarily draws upon the experience of a team of NGO workers and community members who have been involved, since last few years, in addressing issues relating to land, water and livelihood rights of settlers (farmers and pastoralists) of the IGNP Stage II Command area, mostly in Pugal and Kolayat area of Phase I and Ramgarh area of Phase II.)
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