State Potable Water Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani convened a meeting of officials through video conferencing on Tuesday and instructed them to take effective steps to repair the damaged potable water pipelines in the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions of Uttarakhand.
He seemed satisfied with the work done by the department employees for resuming the supply of potable water in the fringe parts of the State. After expressing concern that the potable water pipelines were baldy damaged in the disaster hit areas of the State, the Minister said that the department has repaired most of the damaged potable water pipelines in the disaster hit areas of Uttarakhand.
He issued the strict instructions to the officials of Peyjal Nigam and Jal Sansthan to take effective measures for repairing the damaged potable water pipelines. He also instructed to able the estimate for repairing and maintenance of the potable water pipelines across the State. The Minister also assured the officials that the funds will not become barrier for repairing the damaged potable water pipelines.
He cleared that the team of officials will visit the affected areas to gauze the damage occurred to the potable water pipelines across the state. Naithani stressed that the officials should visit the affected areas and should take ample of steps to stop leakage in the potable water pipelines. According to him, 29 potable water pipelines are reported to be damaged in the urban areas of Garhwal division and Rs1,505.98 lakh is required for repairing the damaged potable water pipelines whereas 664 potable water pipelines area damaged across the Garhwal division and Rs3,663.6 lakh is required for carrying repairing work in the division.
Naithani said that the 11 potable water pipelines are damaged in urban areas in Kumaon division and Rs70.85 lakh is required for repairing the damaged potable water pipelines whereas 304 potable water pipelines are damaged in the rural areas and will cost Rs893 lakh to the department for repairing the damaged potable water pipelines.
The Minister also highlighted that the funds released by the district administration for carrying repair work is insufficient for the department. The Minister also telephonic instructed the district magistrates of the respective states to sanction more funds to Jal Sansthan and Peyjal Nigam so that the department can repair and maintain damaged potable water pipelines in the disaster hit areas of the State.
He also instructed officials to take effective steps for overcoming the shortage of potable water in all the disaster hit areas of the state and start repair work at earliest.
Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar, Principal Secretary S Raju, Chief General Manager Jal Sansthan DD Dimri, PC Kimothi, SK Gupta, Chief General Manager Peyjal Nigam GC Joshi, Managing Director Ravindra Kumar, Chief Engineer Y Singh and other officials were also present.