With the summer heat being exceptionally severe this year, the district has been facing severe water shortage. The District Collector has been mobilising his subordinate officials to conserve the remaining water reserves to prevent the district from plunging into an acute drinking water crisis. Along with an awareness campaign for conserving water, strict measures have been taken for stopping the over-exploitation of ground-water. Vigilance teams have been deployed to tour the villages and find the farmers who are drawing water from deep borewells or from the river reservoir for irrigation. The farmers are agitated by such action. A delegation of farmers meets the District Collector with their issues and complains that while they are not being allowed to irrigate their crops, big industries located near the river are drawing huge amounts of water through deep borewells for their industrial processes. The farmers allege that their administration is anti-farmer and corrupt, being bribed by the industry. The district needs to placate the farmers as they are threatening to go on a prolonged protest. At the same time, the District Collector has to deal with the water crisis. The industry cannot be closed as this would result in a large number of workers being unemployed.(a) Discuss all options available to the District Collector as a District Magistrate.(b) What suitable actions can be taken in view of mutually compatible interests of the stakeholders?(c) What are the potential administrative and ethical dilemmas for the District Collector?
What the examiner wants
In a severe water shortage, farmers protest curbs while industry draws groundwater. List the Collector's options, actions that reconcile interests, and the dilemmas.
Demand-wise check
- 1(a) Options: enforce curbs on farmers only; curb industry too; close industry; negotiate rationing for all users≈65 words
- 2(b) Actions: audit industrial withdrawals, cap and meter borewells, priority for drinking water, water recycling by industry, tankers, crop advisory for less water-intensive crops, transparent public data≈65 words
- 3(c) Dilemmas: livelihoods vs drinking water, jobs vs equity, allegation of corruption vs need for trust, law enforcement vs avoiding protests≈65 words
Open in about 30 words and close in about 30.
Answer plan
Where marks usually go
- Siding entirely with farmers or industry
- No mention of drinking water priority
Draw this
- Table: stakeholder → need → action
Value addition
- PolicyNational Water Policy 2012 gives drinking water and sanitation first priority.Ministry of Jal Shakti
- RuleCentral Ground Water Authority guidelines (2020) require a no-objection certificate for industrial groundwater use.Central Ground Water Authority
Mapped topper copies
Reviewed public-source references related to this PYQ. Same-syllabus references are labelled separately.
- Aakash Garg · AIR 5 · Page 35 ↗Reviewed PYQ reference
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 31 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 35 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Aakash Garg · AIR 5 · Page 31 ↗Same syllabus reference
Links open original public sources. MainsBuddy does not host these answer sheets.
Next: plan for one minute, write it in 14 minutes, then get it checked.