With a view to make available pure and safe drinking water facility to the people, the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) has installed over 18,000 new hand pumps during the last one-and-half years in Chhattisgarh.
A total of 21,151 tube wells have also been dug in the aforesaid duration. Out of this, 18,894 tube wells were stated to be in working condition for installing the hand pumps, an official press release issued here on Wednesday stated.
Following this, a total 18,339 new hand pumps were installed on the usable tube wells.
Besides, the PHED has also dug as many as 520 tube wells under Nal-Jal Scheme in the aforesaid duration, out of which, 473 were stated to be usable. The Department has also approved a sum of Rs 208.78 crore to dig 23,422 tube-wells across the State during the last one-and-half years including sanctioning Rs 128.69 crore for 2014-15.
A sum of Rs 81.57 crore was approved under National Rural Drinking Water Programme while the State government made provision for the remaining Rs 47.12 crore in its annual budget for 2014-15, it stated.
In the current financial year, as many as 1837 new tube-wells were dug, out of which, hand pumps on 1144 successful tube-wells were installed.
As per records, the State government has made a provision of Rs 362.39 crore for digging tube-wells during the last three financial years.