Atal Bhujal Yojana is a groundwater management scheme launched by Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi on the 95th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (i.e. on 25 December 2019). The purpose of the scheme is to arrest the decline in groundwater levels and improve groundwater management by involving community participation and line departments in seven states of India (i.e. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh).
In Haryana, the said scheme is currently being implemented by the Irrigation and Water Resources Department. It has a proposed budgetary provision of INR 723 crores to help in conserving groundwater and strengthening the organisations concerned from year 2020-21 to 2024-25. Under this scheme, 1656 Gram Panchayats of 36 blocks in 14 districts have been identified, which fall in the overexploited/critical category.
These 14 districts are Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Faridabad, Fatehabad, Gurugram, Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Mahendragarh, Palwal, Panipat, Rewari, Sirsa, Yamunanagar. Till date, Water Security Plans (WSPs) have been prepared with the help of active participation of community for all the 1656 Gram Panchayats as a part of this scheme.
Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal Jal) is targeted at sustainable groundwater management, mainly through convergence among various ongoing schemes with the active involvement of local communities and stakeholders. This will ensure that in the Scheme area, the funds allocated by the Central and State governments are spent judiciously to ensure the long term sustainability of groundwater resources. The scheme has been designed as a pilot with the principal objective of strengthening the institutional framework for participatory groundwater management.
In order to acknowledge and contain the ever-growing problem of groundwater depletion, the Indian Government introduced the Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABY) in December 2019 after getting financial approval from the World Bank in 2018. It has been launched under the Jal Jeevan Mission of the government.
Atal Bhujal scheme is related to groundwater usage and conservation in India and is one of the important Government Schemes. These kinds of schemes are important for the UPSC exam as every year, many questions are asked in both the prelims and mains exam.