SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh deputy chief minister Mukesh Agnihotri in a review meeting of the Jal Shakti Department held in Shimla on Monday said that earnest efforts for water conservation should be made to overcome the situation of any shortage of water in future.
He said that there is a need to lay more emphasis on the rain and snow water harvesting, groundwater recharge and source stability. He said that to maintain the quality and conservation of water all the officers should also organize awareness programs and the department should also try to protect and preserve traditional water bodies.
Mukesh Agnihotri said that the state government is working towards sustainable and equitable development of the state and a work culture should be maintained by all the concerned officers. He said that officers should work to make 24x7 water available to the common people in the state.
He said that apart from drinking water, there is a need to focus on providing more irrigation facilities. He said that with the aim of improving the area under irrigation, rapid re-assessment will be done so that need based work should be ensured.
The HP dy CM said that a pilot project has been set up in Ghanahatti under Internet of Things (IoT) based monitoring equipment system, and another such project is being set up in Sirmour. To maintain the quality of water in the state, 67 laboratories have been established, out of which 58 laboratories have been accredited with NABL, he added.
To ensure transparency in the tender process, the bid capacity and work according to the rules should be taken care of. He said that every officer of the level of Executive Engineer should adopt at least 3 schemes each and Superintending Engineer to Engineer-in-Chief should adopt at least one big scheme so that quality of work could be improved, he said. Priority areas should also be defined and all the officers should work in coordination to avoid any hindrance in the development.
Earlier, Secretary Jal Shakti Amitabh Awasthi welcomed and thanked the Deputy Chief Minister and detailed various issues of the department.
