As per the 6th census report on minor irrigation schemes, Maharashtra is the second-highest State that possesses the largest number of minor irrigation (MI) schemes in the country after Uttar Pradesh. The Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation released the report yesterday.
 
The report stated that 23.14 million minor irrigation (MI) schemes have been reported in the country, out of which 21.93 million (94.8 per cent ) are Ground Water (GW) and 1.21 million (5.2 percent) are Surface Water (SW) schemes. There has been an increase of about 1.42 million in MI schemes during the 6th MI census as compared to the 5th Census. GW schemes comprise dugwells, and shallow, medium, and deep tube wells. The SW schemes include surface flow and surface lift schemes.

Maharashtra is the leading State in dug-wells, surface flow, and surface lift schemes, followed by Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, and Jharkhand. Leading States in GW schemes are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.
 
Of all MI schemes, 97.0 per cent are in use, 2.1 per cent are temporarily not in use, and 0.9 per cent are permanently not in use. For the first time, information about the gender of the owner of the MI scheme was also collected in the case of individual ownership. Out of all the individually owned schemes, 18.1 per cent are owned by women.