Himachal Pradesh Irrigation and Public Health Minister Vidya Stokes on Thursday directed the officers of the department to prepare Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) of water supply schemes in a time-bound manner so that partially covered habitations could be provided drinking water facility at the earliest.
Stokes, presiding over the meeting of the Irrigation and Public Health Department to review targets and achievements for the financial year 2014-15, expressed happiness that most of the targets for the last financial year were achieved.
She said that the State Government was committed to cover all the remaining habitations with drinking water facility in a time bound manner for which all out efforts were being made.
“Government is laying added priority on improving the quality of water in existing schemes which do not have proper treatment units,” she said. It had been decided to install water treatment units and repair of these units and filter beds in 512 water supply schemes in next three years, she said adding that `20 crore had been allocated for this work during the current financial year.
Stokes directed to give top priority to those schemes where more than 75 percent of work had been completed so that people could be benefited with drinking water facilities.
The Minister said that against the target of bringing 3000 hectare area under minor irrigation, the department achieved a target of 3520.30 hectare whereas 584 hectare area was brought under flood control. She said that the combined DPRs for water supply scheme to Shimla town from Kol Dam, rehabilitation of water supply distribution system and rejuvenation of sewerage network including coverage of left out areas of Shimla town amounting to `643.05 crore had been technically got approved from the Central Government.
Stokes said that `17,762.26 lakh were spent on rural water supply and `1,255.44 lakh on urban water supply during last financial year besides `15,135.78 lakh on irrigation sector and `2,471 lakh on command area development.