The Punjab Government has at last acknowledged that reckless abuse of groundwater, non-harvesting of rainwater and wheat-paddy would result in Desertification of the state in the next 15-20 years. However, given the track record of successive governments in Punjab, there is little hope that the problem will be addressed in an effective and sustainable manner. For the past about four decades, governments conveniently ignored the ever-growing problem of water scarcity in Punjab. They refused to read what was written on the wall. The only significant step taken to save groundwater was the Punjab Preservation of Sub-Soil Water Act, 2009, enacted by the Assembly. The effective implementation of this Act did postpone the extraction of groundwater from May 15 to June 15 a very hot and dry period during which there is a very high level of evapo-Transpiration.
The Vidhan Sabha panels report is not the first to highlight the depleting water table and impending water scarcity. Some expert committees and several experts have been pointing to the unsustainable overexploitation of groundwater since the mid-1980s. Johl Committee-1 (1986) and II (2002), constituted by the State Government for restructuring and diversifying Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture, made significant recommendations for shifting a substantial area (20 per cent) from under paddy, but these did not cut any ice. Instead, the area under paddy increased from 3.9 lakh hectares (9.62% of the net sown area) in 1970-71 to 31.03 lakh hectares (75.35% of the net sown area) in 2018-19. The Draft Agricultural Policies (2013 and 2019) prepared by the Punjab State Farmers Commission also recommended crop diversification by shifting a considerable area from under paddy. Unfortunately, these draft policies never fructify into an agricultural policy. Consequently, the state has neither an agricultural policy nor a comprehensive water policy. Even the Punjab Water Development and Regulatory Authority, constituted in 2020, has not included Irrigation under its purview. Unfortunately, successive governments of Punjab, instead of acting upon the recommendations of their expert committees, have been indulging in cheap, competitive political populism aimed at vote banks. This is a classic case of irresponsible Governance.