Punjab CM Mann announces 7,000 km of pipeline to take canal water to every farm

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann on Monday said his government will lay 7,000 kilometres of pipelines by the end of this year to bring canal water to every farm in the state.
Addressing a Lok Milni programme at Bhallur village in Moga district, Mann said the state government has already laid 14,000 km of pipelines and watercourses over the last four years to improve irrigation. Around 80 per cent of the state’s farms are getting 21,000 cusecs of canal water through these pipelines,  he said. The government is creating water recharge points along canals and rivers to improve the groundwater level, which has risen by two to four metres in several areas, he added.

Mann alleged that canal water under earlier regimes was meant only for influential people, and said that his government is steadfast in taking it to every farmer. On the row that has beset him for days, the chief minister attacked opposition parties, saying they had joined hands against him after their defeat in the 2022 Assembly elections because they could not match his government’s performance. He alleged that the previous governments encouraged corruption, mafia, and the drug trade.

Under his government, Mann said, over 90 per cent of households are getting free electricity, and more than 68,000 people have got government jobs without paying a bribe or using leverage.
He said his government has constructed 3,100 sports stadiums to encourage youth to stay away  from drugs. The government’s Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojna provides cashless medical treatment of up to Rs 10 lakh for every resident family in Punjab, adding that people have already availed treatment worth over `650 crore under the scheme, he said.

The Aam Aadmi Party leader announced financial assistance to all adult females from July 1 under Maavan Dheeyan Satkar Yojna.