Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 20: In order to provide potable drinking water to the uncovered habitations and to complete the on-going Water Supply Schemes (WSS) in the Kashmir division, an Action Plan to the tune of Rs. 261.52 crore has been proposed for the current financial year by the PHE Department. The Action Plan is likely to be approved by the Central Government shortly.
The allocation is proposed to cover as many as 500 new habitations, which includes establishing 1600 hand pumps, constructing tube-wells, coverage of schools, to improve water quality, new initiatives under sustainability and other allied works to augment and improve the overall drinking water scenario in the division.
This information was given to the Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Sham Lal Sharma at a high-level meeting of engineers had to review the functioning of the Department.
Minister of State for PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Nazir Ahmed Gurezi was also present in the meeting.
Appreciating the previous year’s performance, the Minister directed the engineers to make concerted efforts to achieve the targets of current year. He maintained that the Department has been mandated with creating and ensuring the basic need of drinking water to all human beings and cattle, therefore, the officers must devote fully and fulfill the needs of the people. He said quality water and judicious use of this precious commodity is a paramount concern and all out efforts should be made in this context. He also stressed the need for ensuring hundred per cent metering on the commercial establishment to regulate the water supply and to realize revenue.
Expressing satisfaction over the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the 24-point advisory issued by the Administrative Department to improve and streamline the functioning of the Department, Mr. Sham said that the organization has been moving in the right direction and it is expected that the functionaries will continue to work hard to realize the targets well ahead of time schedule. He laid stress on maintaining transparency and accountability at all level for better results.
He also stressed on making optimal use of Central funding adding that Central Government has been providing liberal funding under sustainability and conservation components and engineers should formulate maximum projects under these components as per the futuristic needs of people.
Reiterating his commitment to address the problems of Daily Rated workers, the Minister said that Government was serious on this issue and a positive decision will be taken after obtaining requisite information from all divisions about the exact number of such workers. He directed the concerned to expedite the information within next one week.
The Commissioner/ Secretary, PHE, gave resume of the functioning of the Department and steps initiated to achieve the targets.
Commissioner/Secretary, PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Dr. Pawan Kotwal, Chief Engineer, PHE, Kashmir, M.A. Lanker, Chief Engineer, Irrigation & Flood Control, Kashmir, Javed Jaffer, SEs, XEns and other officers of the Department from Kashmir division were present in the meeting.
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