To prevent flooding in Muktsar, Faridkot and Ferozepur districts of Punjab, the Central Government on Wednesday approved financial assistance worth Rs 825 crore for relining of Sirhind and Rajasthan feeder canals.
“The Government on Wednesday approved Central assistance of Rs 620.42 crore and Rs 205.758 crore for implementation of relining of Rajasthan and Sirhind feeder canals, respectively, over five years (2018-19 to 2022-23),” said the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley after a meeting of the Union Cabinet.
A Government statement said that the projects would help address the problem of flooding in 84,800 hectare of land in Muktsar, Faridkot and Ferozepur districts in southwest Punjab. “The projects, once completed, would address the problem of water logging in South-West Punjab and enhance the flows or water availability in the two canals,” it said.
The statement said that the projects would help improve irrigation in 98,739 hectares of land in Rajasthan and 69,086 hectares in Punjab.
Meanwhile, Punjab’s former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal thanked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for approving Rs 1,976 crore central assistance “in one go” for relining as per the proposal of the erstwhile SAD-BJP Government.
Badal, who has been relentlessly following up these projects since 2007, said that the approval would go a long way in ending the scourge of water logging in Malwa region of Punjab and improve irrigation facilities in Punjab and Rajasthan.