The Punjab Government led by the visionary guidance of the Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann stands committed to ensure clean drinking water and prioritized sanitation services especially to the inhabitants of rural areas. Hence, focus should be on ensuring the accomplishment of this objective.
Disclosing this here today in the introductory meeting of the Water Supply & Sanitation Department since taking charge as the Minister concerned, Mr. Hardeep Singh Mundian also laid emphasis on providing toilets in the Revenue Offices (Patwarkhanas) throughout the State for the female staff members as well as visitors.
Terming water as the precious resource, the Minister directed the officials to go strict on those indulging in water wastage by imposing fines on them under the Water Act so as to make sure that all the households get uninterrupted water supply. Besides, all those households (12 Lakh out of total 35 Lakh) having their own private sources of water, must be connected with the Government Water Supply sources.
Rooting for the timely completion of the 15 large scale canal water supply projects for water quality affected and water deficient areas, sanctioned at a cost of Rs. 2174 Crore, the Minister said that transparency and honesty must be the key factor in all the projects undertaken by the department.
Apart from this, the Minister batted for the usage of technological advancements in the form of ‘m-Gram Seva App’ in order to effectively implement the schemes initiated by the Gram Panchayat Water and Sanitation Committees.A comprehensive camapaign should be kickstarted with a view to spread awareness in the villages for robust management and conservation of water, added the Minister.
On the occasion, the Minister was apprised that a total of 9492 schemes are at present going on in 11467 Gram Panchayats of 153 Blocks. Besides, from NABARD XXII till XXIX, 469 schemes have been implemented in 700 villages while projects worth Rs. 160 Crore under NABARD XXX have been submitted to the Finance Department and ODF Plus status has been achieved in respect of the 963 villages in the State under Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen).
The Minister also directed the enhancement of laboratory network capacity and the NABL accreditation of all 31 labs for biological parameter testing, which include one state-cum-referral lab, six regional labs, 17 district labs, and seven block-level labs.Present at the meeting were Principal Secretary of Water Supply & Sanitation Nilkanth S. Avhad and Special Secretary of Water Supply & Sanitation Amit Talwar.