Uttar Pradesh Gehre Nalkoop Free Boring Scheme (Deep Tube Well)

What is the Gehre Nalkoop Free Boring Scheme?

Uttar Pradesh Gehre Nalkoop Free Boring Scheme is the deep tube well component of the Minor Irrigation Department's boring programme, and the oldest of the three, the department has run it since 1982. The scheme funds tube wells sunk beyond 60 metres, generally in the 61 to 90 metre band and deeper where the rock demands it.

"Gehre nalkoop" means deep tube well. The scheme is not a bigger version of the shallow boring scheme; it exists for a different physical problem. Across Uttar Pradesh's plateau, Bundelkhand and hard-rock tracts, the water-bearing layer sits well below the reach of a 30-metre boring, and drilling through rock costs several times what drilling through alluvium costs. Applying the shallow scheme's Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 grants in those districts would fund almost nothing, which is why the department maintains a separate scheme with a Rs 1,00,000 boring ceiling.

The Minor Irrigation Department's three depth bands sit as follows:

Volume in this scheme is small by design. The department's application dashboard records roughly 21,700 deep tube well applications, against about 11 lakh shallow ones. A deep tube well is a capital structure, not a routine field improvement.

Who is eligible for the deep tube well scheme?

You can apply if:

• You are a permanent resident of Uttar Pradesh engaged in farming.
• Agricultural land is recorded in your own name in the current Khatauni.
• You are registered under PM-KISAN or on the state's transparent farmer service portal.
• The proposed site can support a command area of roughly 12 hectares net or 20 hectares gross.
• No existing tube well stands within about 500 metres of the proposed site.
• Your development block permits new groundwater structures.
• You can deposit your 50% share of the estimated cost.

All categories of farmer are eligible under this scheme. There is no small-farmer or marginal-farmer restriction of the kind that governs the shallow scheme, because the cost-sharing requirement does that filtering instead.

You cannot apply if:

• Your development block is classified as over-exploited or critical for groundwater. The department excludes these blocks from all its boring schemes, and a deep tube well in a falling-water-table block is exactly what the rule is designed to prevent.
• An existing tube well lies within 500 metres of the proposed site. Two deep wells drawing from the same limited aquifer degrade both.
• The command area is too small, a site that can only irrigate two or three hectares does not justify a deep tube well, and the department will point the applicant to the shallow or medium-depth scheme.
• The land is not in your name. Tenants and sharecroppers without recorded title are not eligible applicants.
• You have already taken benefit under another government boring scheme.
• You cannot deposit the 50% share when the estimate is issued.

How much money does the scheme provide?

Read these as ceilings on a 50% share, not as fixed payouts. If a deep boring in hard rock costs Rs 2.60 lakh, the 50% share is Rs 1.30 lakh but the ceiling caps the grant at Rs 1,00,000, and the farmer's real contribution is Rs 1.60 lakh. If the same work costs Rs 1.40 lakh, the grant is Rs 70,000 because 50% binds first. Ask for the departmental estimate before assuming a number, because in deep boring the gap between the ceiling and the actual bill is usually wide.

The Rs 68,000 energisation component is the part most worth claiming carefully. Deep tube wells need higher-capacity pumps and therefore a proper electricity connection; a completed boring with no connection is a dry hole with paperwork.

How to apply for the Gehre Nalkoop scheme

1. Complete your PM-KISAN or state farmer portal registration. The application will not proceed without that number.
2. Obtain a current Khatauni / Form 61-B extract in your own name and identify the exact plot on which the boring is proposed.
3. Check the site against the two physical rules before applying — a command area of about 12 hectares net or 20 hectares gross, and no existing tube well within roughly 500 metres. Most rejections in this scheme are decided here, before any paperwork is examined.
4. Apply online through the Minor Irrigation Department's application portal (miuponline.in, reachable from minorirrigationup.gov.in) under the deep tube well category, and save the application number shown on submission.
5. Or apply offline at the Minor Irrigation Department office with the filled form, documents and the Rs 1,500 survey fee, and collect a receipt.
6. Undergo the departmental site survey. For a deep tube well this is a substantive geological assessment, not a formality. It determines the likely drilling depth, the expected yield and the cost estimate.
7. Deposit your 50% share against the estimate issued after the survey. Work does not start until this deposit is made.
8. Execution follows under departmental supervision: drilling, casing, pipe distribution system and pump installation.
9. Apply for energisation and claim the electrification component, up to Rs 68,000.
10. Receive the subsidy in your bank account after verification of the completed work.

How do you check the status of the application?

• Track it on the department's online portal using the application number.
• Speak to the Junior Engineer or boring technician of your development block, who holds the physical file and the survey report.
• Escalate to the Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department at the district headquarters for cases pending beyond a season. Deep tube well targets are small, so a district officer can usually say directly where an application sits against the year's target.

Why applications fail, and what to do about it

• Command area too small. The commonest structural rejection. The fix is to apply under the medium-depth or shallow scheme, or to pool land with neighbouring holdings if the department permits a shared structure in your district.
• Existing tube well within 500 metres. Re-site the proposal on a different part of the holding and ask for a fresh survey.
• Block is over-exploited or critical. No re-application will succeed; micro-irrigation subsidies are the realistic alternative.
• Land not in the applicant's name. Get the record mutated first.
• 50% share not deposited, so the sanction lapsed and the target moved on.
• Cost overrun after drilling started, where the rock proved harder than estimated. The department's ceiling does not rise; the farmer meets the difference, which is why the pre-work estimate deserves close attention.
• Duplicate benefit already taken under the shallow or medium-depth scheme.

Where to get help and how to complain

• Minor Irrigation Department helpline: 0522-2286627, 0522-2286601, 0522-2286670.
• Department fax: 0522-2286932.
• Block level: Junior Engineer / boring technician of your development block.
• District level: Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department.
• State grievance route: jansunwai.up.nic.in, which issues a tracking number and routes the grievance to the department for a time-bound response.

Two practical warnings. The Rs 1,500 survey fee and your 50% cost share are the only legitimate payments in this scheme, any other demand is not a government charge. And do not engage a private driller on the promise that the department will reimburse afterwards; the subsidy attaches to work executed under departmental sanction and supervision, and a privately drilled well is not retrospectively eligible.