Patna, March 10: The state government is contemplating a detailed plan to revive dysfunctional tubewells in the state. A joint committee, comprising officials from minor irrigation and power departments, will be formed next month to decide upon the course of action in this regard.

Replying to a question by MLC Harendra Pratap Pandey in the Upper House today, power and parliamentary affairs minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said the state government was keen to improve the irrigation scenario in the state. “The committee will look into the possibility to use river, underground and rain water for irrigation purposes. A joint committee of power and minor irrigation departments will be formed soon to prepare a roadmap for the project,” said Yadav.

Prior to this announcement, minor irrigation minister Awadhesh Prasad Kushwaha apprised the House that there are 5,146 government tubewells in the state of which only 1,851 are functional. MLC Shiv Prasann Yadav raised a supplementary question that why was not the government strengthening the power supply system in rural areas even as farmers were suffering huge losses due to drought-like conditions prevailing in the state in the past two-three years.

Council chairman Tarakant Jha also suggested that posts of tubewell operators be filled soon. “The government itself is admitting that a large number of posts are vacant due to which many pumps are not being used. These vacancies should be filled immediately,” he said.

Allies attack govt

The attack on the Nitish Kumar government in the Assembly does not normally come from the front, it’s from behind among the friends.

On Thursday, the treasury bench found that the tormentors were from the ruling party benches, Amarendra Pratap Singh, Sanjay Saraogi, Achchudanand Singh (all BJP), Izhar Ahmad and Punam Devi (both JD-U), with the Leader of Opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqui adding fuel to the fire.

BJP MLA Amarendra Pratap Singh was the first when he expressed his dissatisfaction over the government's failure to ensure more storage space for foodgrains, vegetables and fruits grown by the farmers. Agriculture minister Narendra Singh was trying to convince the MLA that the government was tagged with the Asian Development Bank to develop food storage and processing in the state. The minister stated that in 2009-10, the state had produced 105 lakh metric tonnes of foodgrains, a record in the past five years. He blamed the Food Corporation of India for not increasing its storage capacity in the state. “That is why there are reports of foodgrains dumped at railway stations or the corporation not buying the foodgrains,” the minister said.

However, the BJP MLA was in no mood to spare the minister and even took digs at the minister for animal husbandry department Giriraj Singh. “Giriraj was previously the minister of co-operatives. It was his duty to build storehouses, but he did not do it,” the MLA said.