economics of on-farm development - Institute for Social and ...

the hydrological basis on which the initial surveyors favour a specific project,
appear to be altogether different by the time the project is completed. Thus, the
hydrological and environmental parameters are kept static at the planning stage
and are not in tune with the changing patterns <strong>of</strong> resource use. In the process, the
standards <strong>of</strong> scrutiny and evaluation become lax and the project proposals get
approved under political pressure without adequate hydrological data and
preparatory investigation.
Many <strong>of</strong> the projects have been initiated by the states without any
approval by the Technical Advisory Committee (T AC) <strong>of</strong> the Central Water
Resources Ministry. This results in frequent changes in the scope, design and
cost estimates. thus leading to cost escalation. More importantly, political
interests are also successful in making the government commit to new projects
without the necessary technical preparation and financial and economic
justification. The political pressure also induces the engineers to prepare projects
in a hurry and obtain the necessary clearance [later on] and to start far more
projects than can be accommodated within the available resources
(Vaidyanathan, 1999). In this regard. Singh (1997) explains the inherent
contradiction between the 'efficiency in the use <strong>of</strong> available resources' and the
'propensity to have more projects' as a populist" measure. The resulting delays in
generally, no provision there <strong>of</strong> is made in the estimates. Cropping patterns are not
realistic. Benefit-cost ratio is not worked out on realistic basis. Specific problems, if
any, for the projects, which are likely to be met during construction, are not discussed.
Ifall these cost variables are considered, none uf the projects wuuld yield a better BCR
to speak <strong>of</strong>(CBIP, 1977: 5).
~ The wide gap between theoretical expectations and the realisation <strong>of</strong> irrigation systems
in India in the Post-independence period reveals this 'populism' (Ramamurthy, 1995;
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