Coupon

Irrigation Charge- Coupon System

There are near about 11,000 no of Deep Tubewells (DTW) directly under the supervision of BMDA and all the DTWs are governed departmentally by BMDA Zonal Offices.

There were two types of irrigation charge systems practiced by BMDA :

i)              Group irrigation charge system.

ii)             Departmental irrigation charge system.

The departmental irrigation charge systems also have two types;

i)              Departmental diesel system.

ii)             Departmental electrified system.

This departmental Electrified system is called the irrigation charge coupon system of DTWs. At this system DTWs are operated in hourly basis before paying the irrigation charge by coupon but not in cash. Still now  Zonal offices are practiced such coupon system on irrigation charges except some Zonal offices where Pre-paid Meters are installed .

From the beginning cuopon system on irrigation charges played a vital role except others because of its own effectiveness. Now this system is questionable because of creating some unexpected incident on irrigation charge systems.

How to Collect and Use Coupon :

Pump users need to buy coupons issued by the BMDA. They can buy coupons either from Upazilla offices of BMDA or from dealers appointed by BMDA. The dealers collect coupons from BMDA offices on 5 percent commission. The coupons are of different denomination. The values are of 5, 10, 60, 75, 85, 90, 100 and 500 taka respectively. There is an operator for each pump station. When a farmer wants water in his field, he goes to the pump station and places his demand to the operator. As per the request of the farmer, the operator opens the respective valve manually for the relevant field and then switches on the motor for the requisite time after collecting the correct number of coupons of calculated values. The value is calculated on the basis of prescribed rate for the particular pump. On an interval of a day or two, a responsible person from BMDA collects the coupons from the operator and takes the information of pump usages. He also note down the electric energy meter reading in order to cross check the hour of usages. The operators are appointed on a yearly basis from the local people and paid by BMDA on hourly basis of total time of pump operation over a year.