Minor Water Resource Department

Bihar Government notified Minor Irrigation as a separate "Department" in December 1978. Initially an irrigation scheme having cost unto Rs, 10,000 was classified as Minor Irrigation Scheme, but according to criteria laid down by the planning commission of India, effective from 1st April 1979, all irrigation projects, both surface water and ground water having culturable command area (CCA) up to 2000 hectares are classified as Minor Irrigation Scheme. Two autonomous bodies namely “Bihar Hill Area Lift Irrigation Corporation (BHALCO)” & “Bihar Jal Vikas Nigam” were functioning under the department. In July 1986 Govt. of Bihar decided to abolish “Bihar Jal Vikas Nigam” & created a “Tube well Wing” to develop network of tube wells in the state with the help of World Bank. This wing was headed by “Project -Coordinator”, an officer of Engineer-In-Chief rank. After bifurcation of Bihar in November 2000 BHALCO ceased to exist here & has been renamed as JHALCO by Govt. of Jharkhand. From April 2007 department's name has been changed and since then it is known as "Minor Water Resources Department" & “Laghu Jal Sansadhan Bivag” in Hindi.

The department is functioning with the objective of providing irrigation by executing and maintaining small schemes having command area up to 2000 hectares by utilising available ground water & surface water. Minor Irrigation Projects have great utility in Bihar because of the following reasons :— Minor Irrigation Projects provide irrigation in comparatively very short duration on very small investment. Minor Irrigation Projects are suitable in exploiting abundantly available small catchments with their network of natural drains, in the State. A Minor Irrigation Project gets completed in as short a period as within three construction season. A Minor Irrigation Project doesn't involve problems of rehabilitation and environmental degradation. Construction of a Minor Irrigation Project requires very small area; hence the land to be acquired by the Government for Minor Irrigation Projects is also not a problem. High patches of land in the command of a Major Irrigation Project don't get irrigated. Such patches of land could be provided irrigation with the help of a suitable type of Minor Irrigation Project. Thus a Minor Irrigation Project works as complimentary as well as supplementary project to a Major Irrigation Project. "Conjunctive Irrigation", which is nothing but exploitation of G/W in the command of Irrigation Project, does not allow the G/W to rise. This keeps at bay the problems of “Water-Logging” and “Salinity”. The above illustrated points underline the importance as well as utility of Minor Irrigation in overall efficient and optimum management of water as an invaluable natural resource.