Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday asked the field officers of the State Department of Water Supply and Sanitation (DWSS) to personally visit the scarcity-hit villages to ensure direct supply of the potable water at their doorsteps.
The direction came after the Chief Minister received feedback from his recent Sangat Darshan programmes to provide quality drinking water to every rural household across the state.
Badal, presiding over a high level meeting especially convened to review the ongoing water supply and sanitation schemes in the state, directed the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) to immediately release the state’s share of Rs 82 crore for the World Bank project for improvement of 4700 existing water supply schemes in 6500 villages.
He asked the Department to complete this project within next two months.
To ensure free flow of funds for timely execution of various water supply and sanitation schemes, he asked the Principal Secretary (Finance) to release the pending bills
worth Rs 77 crore forthwith besides releasing a sum of Rs 60 crore for the creation of revolving fund to execute works related to construction of toilets in the waterlogged areas on top priority.
He also asked the PIDB to release an amount of Rs 20 crore as a special fund for the maintenance of various water
works in Kandi area so as to ensure regular supply of quality drinking water to its residents there.
Meanwhile, the Sanitation director apprised the Chief Minister that the construction of 40,000 toilets in the waterlogged areas would be completed within next four months.
Badal also asked the Water Supply and Sanitation secretary to immediately set up a special Circle Office under the command of Superintending Engineer (SE) at Sri
Muktsar Sahib to prioritize the execution of different water supply works and sanitation schemes in the waterlogged areas of southern Punjab.
He also exhorted the entire DWSS, right from Minister in-charge up to the level of Executive Engineer, to personally visit the difficult areas at least twice in a week to interact with the local residents to get their vital inputs on one hand and ascertain the ground reality on the other to further bring marked improvement in the water supply and sanitation schemes as per their felt needs.