Question

The movement ‘Pani Panjayath' was initiated to conserve waters in the drought-prone areas of______ state
A. Tamil Nadu
B. Rajasthan
C. Maharashtra
D. Karnataka

Answer 1

Hint: Pani Panjayath is the name first given to a movement by Mr. Vilasrao Salunke for motivating farmers. The government's inability to deal with the drought situation prompted him to take a 40 acre land on lease from the village temple trust and develop a recharge pond in the recharge area of the village, a dug well in the discharge zone, and a lift irrigation system.

Complete answer: A Pani Panjayath is an association of all persons owning land within a hydraulically delineated portion of the command area ranging in size approximately from 300-600 hectares in case of major/ medium/ minor irrigation project.
It may be in respect of minor or sub-minor or direct outlets from the main/ branch distributaries of the project. In the case of lift irrigation or minor flow irrigation project, the area is limited to the project command area where the area is less than 300 hectares.
The Pani Panjayath (PP) is a part of the farmer's organization recognized in Maharashtra.

So, the correct answer is “Option C”.

Additional Information: The principles and protocols for water management and demand management followed by GGP include:
1. Only community irrigation schemes.
2. Decoupling the water and land rights; landless people were also given water rights (through a lease of land to landless people) leading to increased productivity of land, water, and people.
3. Ban on water-intensive crops like sugarcane and banana.

Note: Pani Panjayath principles covered equity, demand management, rights of landless, community participation, and sustainability of the resource.
Its structure comprised of- Water user group for each lift irrigation scheme which in turn had a representation in the village level Pani Panjayath;
Election of the representatives of the village level Committee. Farmers got impressed with the results demanding scale-up of the experiment leading to the setting up of Gram Gaurav Pratisthan (GGP) through which the work was expanded to encompass both groundwater and surface water management.