New Delhi, Sept. 2: The draft National Environment Policy has for the first time criticised government subsidies on electricity and diesel for farmers as a direct cause of falling groundwater levels and consequent degradation of the environment.

Although planners have been calling for withdrawal of the subsidies, the benefits given to farmers for extraction of groundwater are among the populist strategies few politicians are willing to do without.

The draft policy, in the making for the last few years, has finally been brought out to invite objections from the public. In it, the ministry for environment and forests has also recognised that housing and industrial projects will affect the environment.

In what is being seen as a major step forward in preserving environmental resources, the draft suggests the Centre should take environmental impact into consideration while determining electricity tariffs and diesel price.

“The efficient use of groundwater would accordingly require that the practice of non-metering of electric supply to farmers be discontinued in their own enlightened self-interest. It would also be essential to progressively ensure that the environmental impacts are taken into account in setting electricity and diesel pricing,” suggests the policy.

It argues that the subsidies bring down the cost of withdrawing groundwater and encourage “inefficient withdrawals of groundwater by all users, leading to the situation of falling water tables”.

On this alarming trend, the policy says “human interference impacts the rate of recharge of groundwater in aquifers near the surface”.

Groundwater aquifers being open access resources that usually do not fall under the jurisdiction of any local public authority, withdrawals cannot be monitored. Largescale withdrawal for agricultural, industrial and urban use is the major cause of fall in the water table levels, the policy document says.

The Delhi government has announced a decision to set up a water regulatory authority on the recommendation of the World Bank, but it is yet to be constituted.

The authority will determine charges for use of groundwater in a notified area as the water table in the capital has shown a significant slump.

Further, the policy says support prices for several water intensive crops with implicit price subsidies aggravate the situation by providing incentives to take up these crops rather than less water intensive crops.

Indirectly criticising the fertiliser subsidy, the draft also accuses pricing of agricultural chemicals of encouraging improper use by farmers, leading to groundwater pollution.