Rajasthan

• 01 May 2024

Digital Water Distribution System

Why in News?

A unique digital water distribution system for agricultural fields has been launched in Rajasthan’s Sriganganagar district to facilitate the supply of irrigation water.

Key Points

• The new system, evolved by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Jaipur, will enable the farmers to know of the status of water reaching their fields and minimise the scope for human error often reported in the manual system.
  • The digital platform would enhance transparency in distributing water from Gang Canal and Indira Gandhi Canal to all farmers in the district, resolving issues related to water availability.
• According to the Water Resources Department, the heads of water user associations would enter the information about farmers in their respective areas on the portal only once. After this, the farmers will automatically get their irrigation turn slips online.
  • The online ‘barabandi’ (fixed turn) could be expanded and implemented as an equitable water distribution system for the benefit of farmers in other districts of the State as well.

National Informatics Centre (NIC)

• NIC provides network backbone and e-Governance support to the Central Government, State Governments and UT Administrations.
• NIC has been closely associated with the Government in different aspects of Governance besides establishing a Nationwide State-of-the-Art information and communication technology (ICT) Infrastructure.
• It has also built a large number of digital solutions to support the government at various levels, making the last-mile delivery of government services to the citizens a reality.
• It is under the aegis of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
• It was established in 1976 and its headquarters is located in New Delhi.