‘हर खेत को पानी’ के ध्येय के साथ ‘प्रधानमंत्री ग्राम सिंचाई योजना’ शुरू करना। हम किसान की मानसून पर निर्भरता घटाने के लिए बहुआयामी ‘जल रणनीति’ लाएँगे। लंबे समय से लंबित सिंचाई परियोजनाओं को प्राथमिकता से पूरा कर सिंचित भूमि बढ़ाएँगे… कम पानी खपाने वाली सिंचाई तकनीकें और जल के इष्टतम उपयोग को शुरू और प्रोत्साहित करना।

The 2014 manifesto's water promise names a scheme and a motto: "Launch the 'Pradhan Mantri Gram Sinchayee Yojana' with a motto of 'har khet ko paani'", along with a commitment to "Increase irrigated land by completing the long pending irrigation projects on priority" and, elsewhere, to "Introduce and promote low water consuming irrigation techniques".

The scheme was launched in 2015 as Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana — Krishi rather than Gram — with Har Khet Ko Pani as one component, the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme absorbed into it for large projects, and Per Drop More Crop for micro-irrigation. On the naming and the launch, the promise was kept.

On finishing the long-pending projects, the Ministry of Jal Shakti gave the count to the Lok Sabha on 6 August 2026: "Ninety-Nine (99) ongoing major and medium Irrigation Projects (and seven phases) were included under the PMKSY-AIBP during 2016-17. Further, 19 new major and medium irrigation projects have been taken up for funding under this scheme after March, 2021. Out of these, 71 projects have been completed."

Seventy-one of 118, ten years after the projects were prioritised precisely because they had already been pending for years. Many of the 99 were sanctioned in the 1980s and 1990s. Prioritisation has produced completion for a majority and left 47 still running.

The question this answer responds to asked something sharper, and it is the right question for Indian irrigation: "the details of the gap between Irrigation Potential Created and Irrigation Potential Utilised under Central irrigation projects… along with the reasons identified for such gap." That gap — dams and main canals built, field channels never dug, water never reaching the farm — has been the central failure of Indian irrigation investment for decades. The ministry answers it only through a state annexure for Uttar Pradesh, with no national figure for potential created against potential used.

On micro-irrigation, the Micro Irrigation Fund exists and the answer reports assistance released for one state on request; no national area figure appears here.

A scheme launched as promised, a majority of long-pending projects completed, and the utilisation question — whether the water reaches the field — left unanswered at national level. Our verdict is lacks context.