Articles by Jasveen Jairath

After the richer locals leased land/water from the poor cooperatives in the 1970s in Kolleru in Andhra Pradesh, the land has remained in the name of poor "beneficiaries", while the real fisherfolk work on meagre wages. Ironically, those legally entitled to the benefits have been reduced to wage earners on their own land/water; the rich have not only taken over all the cooperative societies, but have also started illegal encroachments.

Jasveen Jairath B D DHAWAN has again drawn attention to the question' of irrigation water rates in the recent issues of EPW [Dhawan 1997a and 1997b], The focus of the earlier article was to highlight the high cost of providing canal irrigation. Using cost data from the National Accounts Statistical Organisation of GOI, he concluded that the per hectare cost of supplying public irrigation through canals increased from Rs 488 to Rs 2,277 times at current prices. At constant prices

The Irrigation Debate An Intervention Jasveen Jairath OF late a fierce debate on the question of irrigation has been going on in the country ranging from activist forums to popular media right through to academic circles. Stimulated by the popular opposition to Narmada Valley Project the debate has typically assumed the form of taking positions on the question of large surface irrigation projects in relation to small/medium/ underground irrigation schemes. Apparently dealing with technical and specialist matters, the debate has forced issues of a much broader and fundamental nature to the fore, albeit quite unconsciously. The pertinent point about the debate is not so much the particular positions taken as the rationale underlying the respective positions. Essentially it reflects a clash of two distinct viewpoints on the question of development as such. This is explicitly acknowledged by those critical of the installation of large dams, who argue that an irrigation policy as above, has to be viewed in the context of an overall strategy of development which is alienated from and superimposed on the people whom it seeks to develope. It is not the material or ecological consequences associated with large dams that they attack per se. Their critique rather derives primarily from the social context of the creation and use of large dams which they argue results in peculiar techno-economic consequences. Perforce the tendency of this camp is to widen the terms of debate and discussion. In contrast the focus of proponents of large dams policy typically remains rather narrow and technocratic.

A Study of Irrigation and Production in Punjab, 1965-1970 Jasveen Jairath To investigate and assess the role that irrigation technologies play in influencing yields in different regions, it is necessary to identify the conditions which facilitate or constrain the adoption and effective utilisation of irrigation. This paper seeks to explain the differences in responses to public and private sources of irrigation as observed in different areas of Pubjab, differing in sources of irrigation as observed in different areas of Punjab, differing in sources of irrigation. The author finds that it is mainly and basically the differences in the pattern of land distribution that explain the differential impact of irrigation on production.