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RAS question

ASSERTION (A): The Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana (IGNP) is the largest canal irrigation project in India, bringing water from the Harike Barrage on the Sutlej-Beas confluence to the arid districts of north-western Rajasthan. REASON (R): The IGNP has not only expanded irrigated agriculture in the Thar Desert but has also contributed to demographic changes in the region, attracting migrant settlers from other states to cultivate newly irrigated lands. Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

Correct answer: (B) Both A and R are true, but R is NOT the correct explanation of A.

The Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana assertion and reason are both true, but the demographic changes caused by canal settlement are an impact of the project, not the reason it is counted among India's largest canal irrigation systems.

  1. (A)

    Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

  2. (B)

    Both A and R are true, but R is NOT the correct explanation of A

  3. (C)

    A is true, but R is false

  4. (D)

    A is false, but R is true

Explanation

Both statements are true, but the reason does not explain the assertion. The SATHEE/NCERT account identifies the Indira Gandhi Canal, earlier known as the Rajasthan Canal, as originating at Harike Barrage in Punjab and running through the Thar Desert of Rajasthan. It gives the planned canal system as 9,060 km, designed to serve a culturable command area of 19.63 lakh hectares, with Stage-I in Ganganagar, Hanumangarh and northern Bikaner and Stage-II spread across desert districts including Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Jodhpur, Nagaur and Churu. That scale explains the assertion. The reason is also true because the project opened irrigated farming and produced new settlements, but those are consequences of the canal command area, not the basis of its size.

Why the other options are wrong

  • (A) A treats the demographic impact as the explanation for IGNP's scale, whereas the scale comes from the canal system and its command area, not from later settlement changes.
  • (C) R is not false: the canal command area opened irrigated farming and created new settlement patterns, with settlers from outside the older desert villages becoming stakeholders.
  • (D) A is not false: the cited NCERT/SATHEE material places the canal at Harike Barrage and gives a 19.63 lakh hectare culturable command area.

Concept

This tests assertion-reason logic in Rajasthan geography: project features must be separated from project impacts. IGNP recurs in RAS because it links irrigation, desert development, command area planning and social change in western Rajasthan.

Source

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