Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 14: Chairman, State Water Resources Regulatory Authority (SWRRA) and former Chief Secretary, S S Kapoor today chaired a high level meeting of Deputy Commissioners of various districts of Jammu division to take stock of implementation of State Water Resources Regulatory Act in their respective jurisdictions.
The Chairman had a detailed review of various programmes of the Act like collection of water charges, utilization of existing water resources, extraction of river bed material, water metering etc.
Kapoor directed the concerned departments like Irrigation and PHE to ensure collection of water charges as per norms and gear up their men and machinery to increase revenue realization under water charges collection which is very low in our state as compared to other states.
Expressing concern over damage of river structures due to excessive extraction of river bed material, the Chairman exhorted upon the concerned authority to intensify efforts to ensure minimum loss of river bed material thus saving various important structures in the rivers. He asked the DCs to redouble their efforts for ensuring effective implementation of Water Resources Regulatory Act in respective districts.
The Chairman asked the concerned departments like Geology and Mining to stop giving extension to contracts of river bed material extraction so that the river structures are saved further damage. He also asked them to work out a plan envisaging collection of charges from the contractors as per the cost of the extracted river bed material.
Kapoor exhorted upon the concerned officers to give focused attention on revival of old conventional ponds besides motivating people to preserve the same.
The DCs informed the Chairman that they are working hard to ensure strict implementation of water resources regulatory act in their respective districts.
Deputy Commissioners, Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Udhampur, Reasi and Poonch, Chief Engineers, I&FC, PHE and RTIC, SEs and Exn of different departments besides other senior concerned officers attended the meeting.
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