Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal on Wednesday directed the officers of the Irrigation Department to identify inundated areas under agricultural land in the state.
In order to develop various schemes to deal with the problem of water logging during heavy rainfall, the Chief Minister also instructed the concerned officers to prepare district-wise maps.
The Chief Minister was presiding over a meeting with the officials of the Irrigation and Water Resources Department here. Various measures to deal with the problem of water logging in the agricultural land of the state were discussed in the meeting.
He directed the officials to prepare a plan to recharge the water in such water logging areas. He also asked to develop lakes and ponds to promote fisheries and tourism in the state. The Chief Minister said, “If there are 50 to 60 lakes in the state, then the problem of water logging will be solved and this water will be utilized properly”. Besides this, he said that water can be drained out into drains if this problem of water logging still prevails.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister also instructed the officials that while preparing the district-wise maps related to water logging, data should also be collected for developing lakes in the state.
Manohar Lal also asked the officials to put these new plans on dashboard.
He said that the work on making 4 lakh acres of land into productive land in the state is under process and a target of improving one lakh acres of land per year has already been set.
The work of putting gypsum on saline and alkaline land is under process, but it is not being monitored properly, so the concerned authorities should monitor it thoroughly and survey it so that such land can be improved at the earliest, he added.
He said that the possibilities of fisheries in saline water logging areas should also be explored.
The Chief Minister further directed the officers of the concerned department to prepare a dashboard for providing information about the schemes being run by the Haryana Pond and Waste Management Authority. On this, the officers concerned apprised the Chief Minister that the work on four ponds is in the final stage, which will be inaugurated in the first week of January.
Apart from this, the officers shared that 1000 recharging wells in waterlogged areas of the state would be set up by May 31, 2021.
The Chief Minister was apprised that the Irrigation Department has made an arrangement of 60,000-acre foot storage capacity and storage capacity in Krishnavati River and Masani River in south Haryana has also been increased. Apart from this, water was also released in 125 unused wells in Loharu region and surrounding wells have also been made functional.