Chief Minster Raghubar Das on Tuesday approved the implementation of a unified water scheme across the State and directed formation of an interdepartmental committee under the chairmanship of Development Commissioner for the same.
He said, "Various schemes are functional for water conservation and storage by different departments including water resources, drinking water and sanitation, rural development, urban development, forest and environment and agriculture department for which there are separate budgets. In such situation, an integrated scheme will help prevent repetition of schemes in the same area and attention can be given in those areas where there is a dire need for water supply and conservation."
The new committee formed will be headed by the Development Commissioner while the Secretary of Water Resource department will be the General Secretary of the committee. Secretaries of other departments including forest, environment department, rural development department, urban department, drinking water and sanitation department and agriculture department will be the members in the committee.
"The integrated scheme will be called Jal Yojana of State. This scheme will be implemented across the State as a drive in a time bound period. Monitoring for the scheme will be done at the interval of every 15 days," Das said.
The CM directed promotion and advertisement for awareness of the new scheme at a grand level across the State with the help of public information department and media.
Das said that rain water harvesting was a major issue in the governing council meeting of NITI Ayog held on June 15 in Delhi.
"In the meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also emphasized on water conservation in all the States in a planned way by organizing a grand drive," he said.