Uttar Pradesh Madhyam Gehrayi Nalkoop Free Boring Scheme (Medium Deep Tube Well)

What is the Madhyam Gehrayi Nalkoop Free Boring Scheme?

Uttar Pradesh Madhyam Gehrayi Nalkoop Free Boring Scheme is the medium-deep tube well component of the Minor Irrigation Department's boring programme, launched in May 2004. The scheme funds a tube well sunk to a depth of 31 to 60 metres, along with the pipe network that distributes the water and the electricity connection that runs the pump.

"Madhyam gehrayi nalkoop" translates directly as medium-depth tube well. The scheme fills the gap between two other departmental schemes: the Uthle Nalkoop scheme, which bores to about 30 metres for small and marginal farmers, and the Gehre Nalkoop scheme, which goes beyond 60 metres in hard-rock and plateau tracts. Where the shallow water table has fallen too far to support a 30-metre boring but the geology does not demand a deep well, the medium-depth category is the correct one.

Two things distinguish this scheme from the shallow one, and getting them right saves a farmer a wasted application:

• It is a cost-sharing scheme. The department funds up to 50% of the boring and pump installation cost. The farmer funds the rest. The word "free" in the scheme's popular name is inherited from the shallow scheme and is misleading here.
• It is open to all farmer categories, not just small and marginal farmers. That widening is what makes the 50% contribution requirement reasonable.

The department's application dashboard shows roughly 42,000 applications recorded in the medium-deep tube well category. A fraction of the 11 lakh in the shallow category, which reflects both the higher farmer contribution and the narrower set of situations where a 31 to 60 metre boring is the right answer.

Who is eligible for the medium-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.
• Your land sits in a development block where fresh groundwater structures are still permitted.
• You are able and willing to deposit your 50% share of the boring and pump installation cost when the estimate is issued.

Unlike the shallow scheme, the department does not publish a small-farmer or marginal-farmer restriction for this category. All categories of farmer qualify, which is the main structural difference between the two schemes.

You cannot apply if:

• Your development block is over-exploited or critical for groundwater. This exclusion applies across the department's boring schemes and cannot be waived at district level.
• The land is not in your name, tenants, sharecroppers and family members farming land recorded in someone else's name are not eligible applicants.
• You have already taken a tube well under this or another government boring scheme. The Rs 100 stamp paper undertaking covers exactly this point.
• You are not able to deposit the 50% share. Selection does not survive a failure to deposit at the estimate stage; the sanction is simply withdrawn and the target passes to the next applicant.
• You are not a resident of Uttar Pradesh.

How much does the department pay, and for what?

The Rs 1.53 lakh headline is the sum of the three ceilings. Very few farmers receive the full figure, because each component is capped at the lower of the actual cost and the ceiling. A tube well whose boring costs Rs 1.10 lakh draws Rs 55,000, not Rs 75,000, because 50% binds before the ceiling does.

The energisation grant is the component farmers most often overlook. A bored tube well without an electricity connection irrigates nothing. Up to Rs 68,000 of the package exists specifically to close that gap, and it should be claimed in the same application rather than left for later.

Beyond 60 metres, the extra drilling is at the farmer's own cost. If the department's survey suggests the aquifer is likely to sit deeper than 60 metres, the honest answer is to apply under the deep tube well scheme instead.

How to apply for the Madhyam Gehrayi Nalkoop scheme

1. Register under PM-KISAN or on the state farmer portal if you have not already. The boring application requires that registration number.
2. Get a current Khatauni / Form 61-B extract showing the land in your own name, and check the recorded area and the plot number you intend to bore on.
3. Apply online on the Minor Irrigation Department's application portal (miuponline.in, linked from minorirrigationup.gov.in) under the medium deep tube well category, entering your Aadhaar, land details, bank account and mobile number. Save the application number.
4. Or apply offline at the Minor Irrigation Department office with the filled form, your documents and the Rs 1,500 survey fee. Insist on a receipt for the fee. It is the proof that a survey is owed to you.
5. Undergo the site survey. A departmental technician inspects the proposed location, checks distance from existing tube wells, and forms a view on the likely depth and yield. The survey outcome, not the application date, decides whether the medium-depth category is right for your field.
6. Deposit your 50% share of the estimated cost once the site is approved and the estimate is issued. Work does not begin before this deposit.
7. Boring, pipe laying and pump installation are executed under the department's supervision.
8. Apply for energisation and claim the electrification component, up to Rs 68,000, so that the tube well actually becomes usable.
9. Receive the subsidy in your bank account after departmental verification of the completed work.

How do you track the application and the money?

• Use the application number on the department's online portal to see the current stage: received, surveyed, sanctioned, under execution or completed.
• Contact the Junior Engineer or boring technician of your development block, who holds the physical file and the survey report.
• For anything stuck beyond a season, take it to the Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department at the district headquarters.
• Payment queries — sanctioned but not credited; are usually a bank account mismatch. Check that the account name matches the name on the land record.

Common reasons an application fails

• Land not in the applicant's own name. No amount of family consent substitutes for a recorded title.
• Block classified as over-exploited or critical. A geographic bar, not a documentation defect.
• 50% share not deposited after the estimate was issued, so the sanction lapsed.
• Survey found the site unsuitable for a 31 to 60 metre boring, either because the aquifer is deeper or because an existing tube well is too close.
• Duplicate benefit detected. A tube well already taken under the shallow or deep scheme.
• Missing PM-KISAN or state farmer registration, which blocks the application at entry.
• Incomplete energisation application, leaving the Rs 68,000 component unclaimed even though the boring was completed.

Where to get help and lodge a grievance

• Minor Irrigation Department helpline: 0522-2286627, 0522-2286601, 0522-2286670.
• Department headquarters: Minor Irrigation Department, Lucknow, reachable through minorirrigationup.gov.in.
• Block level: Junior Engineer / boring technician, development block.
• District level: Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department.
• State grievance system: jansunwai.up.nic.in, which issues a complaint number and routes the matter to the department for a time-bound reply.

Two cautions worth carrying into the process. First, the Rs 1,500 survey fee is the only fee in the scheme: anything else demanded is not a government charge. Second, keep every receipt: the survey fee receipt, the 50% deposit challan and the completion certificate together form the file on which your subsidy is released, and reconstructing any one of them later is difficult.