Chandigarh June 13: Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Lal today directed to make adequate arrangement of drinking water and electricity in the State especially during the months of June and July and asked the officers to remain on their heels to deal with any situation of flooding and drought. He made it clear that there should not any complaint pertaining to shortage of drinking water, flooding and water stagnation in any part of the State.
Mr Manohar Lal was presiding over the meeting to review heatwave, drought and flood preparedness in the State with all the Deputy Commissioners of the State through video conferencing here today.
He directed to identify those villages and cities where the problem of drinking water supply might arise in these two months so that adequate arrangement of the same could be made. He also directed the Public Health Engineering and Irrigation and Water Resources Departments to identity those water works in the State which are either empty or has less water to ensure that these are filled with water.
It was informed that there are total 1636 water works in the State out of which 1613 are filled and the work is in progress for filling remaining 23 water works. In was also informed that in the meeting of Flood Control Board held under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Lal in the month of January this year, as many as 167 short term projects were approved out of which 104 projects have been completed and the remaining projects would be completed by June 25, 2019. It was informed that additional capacity of 560 cusec of water has been added as compared to the last year.
The Chief Minister also directed to carry out desilting of drains in the State. It was informed that out of the 825 drains in the state, 568 drains are towards Yamuna River and 257 towards Ghaggar River. The desilting of only 605 drains are required which is under progress and it would be completed by June 30, 2019. Necessary instructions have been issued to the Deputy Commissioner concerned in this regard.
While reviewing the problem of water stagnation in the Yamunanagar area during the rainy season, Mr Manohar Lal directed to ensure that no illegal mining is carried out in the area. Besides, it should also be ensured that even the licensed mining is carried out within the prescribed norms to avoid digging of deep pits which resulted in the problem of water stagnation. He also directed to keep a strict vigil on the mining activities in the areas adjoining Himachal Border. He said that a contingency plan should be prepared well in advance to prevent the water to enter into villages adjoining Yamuna and of district Karnal due to overflowing of Hathnikund Barrage during the monsoon.
He also directed the Public Health Engineering Department to make adequate arrangement of water tankers to meet the requirement of drinking water wherever and wherever needed. It was informed that this year so far the supply of water tanker is one-third which indicate that there is adequate supply of drinking water in the State . However, arrangement of adequate number of tankers have been made in advance.
Earlier, the Chief Minister, directed the Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department to study and ascertain that besides maize and arhar dal which other crops could be sown in place of paddy so as to conserve water. He said that efforts are being made for the diversification of water grazing crops. It was informed that registration of over 10,000 acres has so far been made under the Jal Hi Jeevan Scheme, recently launched by the State Government to encourage the farmers to grow maize and arhar in place of paddy.
Among those present in the meeting included Chief Secretary Mr D.S Dhesi, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr Rajesh Khullar, Deputy Principal Secretary Mrs Ashima Brar, Additional Chief Secretary Revenue and Disaster Management Mrs Keshni Anand Arora, Additional Chief Secretary Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Mrs Navraj Sandhu, Additional Chief Secretary Home Mr S.S Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary School Education Mr P.K Das, Additional Chief Secretary Power Mr T.C Gupta, Principal Secretary Development and Panchayats Mr Sudhir Rajpal, Principal Secretary Irrigation and Water Resources Mr Anurag Rastogi, Managing Director, Haryana Power Generation Corporation and Commissioner, Karnal Division Mr Vineet Garg and other senior officers of the State Government.