The Potable Water Minister, Mantri Prasad Naithani has instructed the officials of his department to focus on the Centrally-funded projects under Namami Gange Project. The Minister made this observation while undertaking a review meeting of the officials at Vidhan Sabha on Monday.
He said that the DPRs of Sewage projects of Joshimath, Gopeshwar, Srinagar, Kirtinagar, Sirkot-Gangnani, Badrinath, Karanprayag, Rudraprayag, Haridwar (BHEl), Muni ki Reti and Dhalwala costing Rs50284.22 lakh should be sent to Union Government so that funds for them are allocated. The minister asked the officials to immediately start work on Rs74.10 crore Jagjitpur Haridwar project.
In the meeting the minister also reviewed the availability of the drinking water in the slums and rural areas. The officials told the Naithani that there are 39309 localities in the state with a water supply of 40 liter per person per day in which 29309 localities are totally covered while 17959 localities are partially covered by the department.
Similarly, there are 5034 localities which are totally covered under 55 litre per day per person supply system. The minister was told that the department has taken a target to cover 957 localities in current financial year.
The minister reviewed the positions of hand pumps in Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts during the meeting. The officers told him that 38852 hand pumps were installed in these districts out of which 1319 pumps are out of order. The minister also reviewed the progress of many drinking water projects of the state.
The minister said that talks are in advanced stage for a loan of Rs300 crore from NABARD by the help of which many potable water projects would be funded. The minister thanked the Union Minister of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation, Uma Bharati for helping the state. He said that the department has prepared projects worth 700 Crores for which financial help from union government is needed.
The OSD Gopal Dut Raturi, additional Chief Secretary S Raju, MD Peyajal Bhajan Singh and others were present on the occasion.