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• Bowing before intense pressure from farmers in the election year, the state government on Tuesday conditionally lifted the ban on power connections to farmers in dark zone talukas of the state. An announcement in this regard was made by water resources minister Nitin Patel in the assembly.“The ban on providing electricity connections to farmers in the 57 dark zone talukas is being lifted. The state government’s notification dated December 16, 2003, in this regard is being withdrawn,” said Patel.The minister, however, said that power connections would be provided to farmers or farmer groups only if they implement drip irrigation or sprinkler system.

• Based on the groundwater table, the government has classified 40 talukas as over-exploited, seven talukas as saline and ten talukas as dark. Some of the dark zone talukas include Dascroi, Sanand, Gandhinagar, Dholka, Dehgam, Mansa, Mehsana, Patan, Siddhpur, Kalol, Idar, Ankleshwar, Visnagar, Palanpur and Porbandar.He said that groundwater table in these 57 talukas had gone up substantially due to state government initiatives in recent years, which was the reason for relaxing the ban.The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), which has been pressing for lifting of the ban for quite some time, welcomed the conditional relief.

• “We welcome the lifting of ban on power connections to farmers in dark zone talukas. These farmers have been deprived of power for too long, and we hope they are given priority in power connections,” said Magan Patel, president of Gujarat unit of BKS.Patel, however, conceded that the announcements could be in view of the upcoming assembly elections.As of March 31, 2011, a total of 4.55 lakh applications for agricultural power connections were pending. This includes 49,400 applications in dark zone talukas.

• To encourage farmers in dark zone talukas to adopt drip irrigation, the minister announced increase in assistance for drip irrigation system from 50% to 60%. He also said that state government planned to provide one lakh power connections to farmers in one year, and announced that that pending applications from dark zone talukas would be given priority.

• The Congress, however, described the announcement as eyewash.“The farmers’ demands to lift ban on agricultural power connections in dark zones has not been accepted. Small farmers cannot afford to implement drip irrigation system. The government should lift the ban totally, particularly when there are no restrictions on industries in dark zones with regards to usage of groundwater,” said senior Congress MLA Arjun Modhwadia.That the Modi government was under pressure is evident from the fact that BKS representatives were called for meetings two times in ten days before the budget session that started on February 23.

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