Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 3: In an attempt to reach out to the people of hilly and rural areas and address their problems at the doorsteps, Minister for PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Sham Lal Sharma today dedicated 25000 gallon discharge capacity deep drill tube well to the people of Dabah in Samba district.
MLA, Samba, Yash Paul Kundal, Vice Chairperson, SC, Advisory Board, Swaran Lata, Ex-Minister Manjit Singh and Ex-MLA Samba, Subash Sharma besides District Development Commissioner, Samba, R K Varma, Chief Engineer, PHE, Jammu, K K Gupta, Chief Engineer, I&FC, Varinder Badyal, SE Hydraulic Jammu, SEs, PHE I&FC Samba and Udhampur, all sectoral officers both the districts, sarpanchs and Panchs were also present on the occasion.
The construction work of tube well including laying of water supply pipes in uncovered areas of the Dabah areas has been completed at a cost of Rs.160.35 lakh under NRDWP.
Addressing a public meeting after inauguration of the deep drill tube well, Sham said that on the commissioning of the water supply scheme, a populace of about 10000 souls of Dabah, Gwalchara, Baloe and Dabah Bajar and its adjoining areas would get relief from shortage of drinking water. He said that Government was highly concerned about the scarcity of water supply in urban and peripheral areas of the state, adding that number of water supply schemes have been taken up to provide safe drinking water to the people of these areas.
Emphasizing the need to involve sarpanchs, panchs as well as locals in the revival and maintenance of traditional water resources, the Minister said that these areas have perennial source of water in kandi areas since centuries. He said that Government has also been working on a comprehensive plan to modernize and revive all the traditional ponds and water bodies in kandi areas of the state that are highly dependable source of water for the people of these areas.
The Minister was informed that the PHE department has taken up number of works/schemes under different heads which include NRDWP (centre sponsored schemes) II district plan III town (UIDSSMT) in Samba district.
The Minister asked the Irrigation Department to furnish a comprehensive plan for channelizing the Basantar Nallah. He also gave on spot instruction to ground water authorities to redevelop four schemes which were non-functional due to non-availability of water sources and submit the report to concerned quarter.
Later, the Minister visited the site of WSS Channi-Mansar near Majalta tehsil and took stock of delinking Mansar Lake. He said that GoI has instructed for protection and preservation of all water bodies in the state. He said that Mansar Lake water is another source for supply of drinking water to the concerned habitants which has been taken up number of time during District Development Board Meeting Udhampur and Samba district.
Later, the Minister also visited the site of new source of WSS Surinsar (under task force) for delinking of Surinsar lake. The WSS Surinsar scheme will be developed at an estimated cost of Rs.723.59 lakh and expenditure of Rs.559.59 lakh has been incurred till March 2013.