Water ATMs should be installed along Char Dham and Hemkund Sahib Yatra routes so that pure drinking water is available to the tourists. The Education, Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani gave this directive while undertaking a review meeting of Peyajal Nigam and Jal Sansthan on Wednesday.
At the meeting, the Minister was informed that toilets were constructed in 15,331 schools of the State while 1,263 toilets are yet to be constructed. The officers of the education department informed that department has received a sum of `4,987 lakh for drinking water connection in 452 schools out of which work in 112 schools is pending.
On the issue of the drinking water projects affected by the disaster, the Minister said that estimates of these projects should be made. He directed the officers of Jal Sansthan to expedite the process of installation of hand pumps in the earmarked areas as per the instructions of Chief Minister Harish Rawat. The Chief General Manager (CGM) of Jal Sansthan, S K Gupta told the minister that 339 projects out of total 341 affected by the thunder storm have been restored.
The officials told Naithani that in most of the single village drinking water projects under Sector Wide Approach (SWAp) project the Gram Sabha level inspection is not taking place. They proposed that such projects should be handed over to Jal Sansthan.
On this proposal the minister directed Additional Secretary Peyajal to prepare a Cabinet proposal. In the meeting it was discussed that the maintenance of the drinking water projects under SWAp should be handed over to the executive agency only and the money meant for maintenance of these schemes should be handed over to the agency. It was suggested that such a scheme of things would ensure that benefit of the project reaches to actual beneficiary.
The Minister directed the officers to present the inspection report of the Sarjula Peyajal Prokect in Tehri. Naithani asked the officials to prepare a detailed draft of the pending budget with the Centre.
The tourism Minister Dinesh Dhani who was present in the meeting directed the officials to ensure that the drinking water is available in Jakhnidhar. Bhagwanpur MlA Mamta Rakesh raised the issue of malfunction of 100 hand pumps in her constituency.
The meeting was ACS Arjun Singh, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) GD Raturi, MD Jal Nigam Bhajan Singh and other senior officers were present in the meeting.
