Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar Monday said that 795 new drinking water supply schemes costing Rs 834.10 crore have been approved to augment drinking water supply in urban and rural areas of the State. This also includes 134 new urban water supply and sewerage schemes at a cost of Rs 104.27 crore.
Khattar said this after chairing the 56th meeting of Water Supply and Sewerage Board in Chandigarh. Haryana Public Health Engineering Minister Banwari Lal, and Chairman, Haryana State Commission for Safai Karamcharis Krishan Kumar were also present at the meeting.
An amount of Rs 801.48 crore for 286 already approved works for the current financial year was also got confirmed in the meeting, for the acceleration of works on the flagship programmes of Public Health and Engineering Department in Rural and Urban area of the State.
In the meeting, Khattar directed the officials concerned to identify water-logged areas or pockets in rural as well as urban areas of the State where water logging occurs in every rainy season so that proactive measures could be taken to mitigate the issue of water logging. He asked to constitute a core group of officers of the concerned departments to deliberate upon the issue according to the different areas and prepare plans for the effective utilization of water-logged land in fisheries, construction of ponds and water bodies, irrigation etc. He also directed that besides cleaning of ponds, possibilities should also be explored for the utilization of pond soil for different purposes.
The Chief Minister was apprised that a dashboard has been developed on the Public Health Engineering Department website to show the status of STPs installed by all concerned departments. Apart from this, monitoring of utilization of treated waste water is being done through a portal recently launched by Haryana Water Resources Authority. Similarly, another dashboard has been developed on the department website depicting the status of water allocated in Liters Per Capita Per Day (LPCD) for each rural habitation of Haryana.
It was informed that to increase revenue collection on operation and maintenance of urban water supply and sewerage schemes in the State, bills for water supply and sewerage facilities are being sent through an SMS on mobile phones for timely information of consumers. Besides, consumers have also been given the option of payment of bills through various parameters and cashless options. It was also informed that linking of water supply connections with Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) ID is under progress and out of 28.22 lakh connections, mapping of 25.22 lakh connections has been completed in rural areas.
MC Chandigarh introduces compostable bags in Apni Mandis
Chandigarh: Aspiring to become a plastic-free city and aiming at raising awareness about the harmful impacts of single-use plastic bags and promoting the use of eco-friendly alternatives, the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh has started an initiative by introducing compostable bags for the vegetable vendors at Apni Mandis on the occasion of International Plastic Bag Free day. Anup Gupta, Mayor, distributed compostable bags to the vendors at Apni Mandi, Sector 45 in the presence of Anindita Mitra, Commissioner. Mitra said MCC will facilitate vendors by making compostable bags available on reasonable rates.