Atal Bhujal Yojana, popularly called Atal Jal, is a groundwater management scheme of the Government of India, formally launched on 25 December 2019 (on the birth anniversary of Atal Bihari Vajpayee) and implemented from the year 2020–21. It is a Central Sector Scheme partly funded by the World Bank, with a total outlay of about ₹6,000 crore spread over five years (2020–25), half from the World Bank as a loan and half from the Government of India.

Why the answer is seven: The scheme targets the most water-stressed regions of the country, covering seven states — Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. These states together contain a large number of over-exploited, critical and semi-critical groundwater blocks, which is why they were prioritised.

The core idea of Atal Jal is community-led sustainable groundwater management. Instead of top-down engineering alone, it emphasises demand-side management, preparation of Water Security Plans by Gram Panchayats, convergence of existing water schemes and transparent sharing of groundwater data so that villagers themselves regulate extraction.

On the other options: The figures eight, ten and five simply do not match the officially notified coverage. The scheme was deliberately restricted to the seven identified priority states rather than being rolled out to a larger or smaller number, so these values are incorrect.