Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri has announced to start Jal Shakti Gaurav Award to honour the excellent services of the officers and employees of the Jal Shakti department in the state. This prestigious award will be given every year to those personnel who are realizing the goal of providing water to every house and farm by demonstrating excellence and dedication in their services.
Shri Agnihotri made this historic announcement today during the state-level water awareness function organized at Kangar ground in Haroli sub-division of Una district. He informed that detailed rules have been prepared for this award. This step would encourage those personnel who were faithfully discharging their responsibilities even in difficult circumstances.
He also released the annual calendar of the Jal Shakti Department on this occasion. He said that transparency was our priority in the Jal Shakti department. Strict instructions had been given to the officials to maintain complete transparency in the departmental tender process and those performing well would be honoured while those involved in corruption would be dealt strictly.
The Deputy Chief Minister said that it was strong will of the state government that in the Theog case, 10 officials were immediately suspended and contractors were blacklisted and investigation process was also initiated. The state government had worked towards completing the previously pending schemes.
The state government had given a decisive result to the work of the long-pending Finna Singh project and Shah Canal project. Reiterating his commitment to strengthen the law and order in Una district, he said that strict action would be taken against those who try to spoil the atmosphere.
Clear instructions have been given to the DC and SP that no one should be spared in cases of drugs and Chitta. He also took a tough stand on illegal logging and mining and said that strict action should be taken against those harming the natural resources. Mukesh Agnihotri said that the Central government was playing with the interests of Himachal and was stalling the projects.
However, the state government would not let the pace of development stop. The Deputy Chief Minister said that twenty thousand employees of the Jal Shakti department in the state were working day and night to supply water to the houses and fields of the people.
He appreciated the hard work and loyal services of all the officers and employees of the department. He asked the department to focus on publicizing its achievements and works and make people aware of them. He said that the services of the Jal Rakshaks appointed in the department during the time of the previous government would be regularized in accordance with the then terms and conditions.
While mentioning the excellent work done in the field of drinking water and irrigation in Haroli, he said that today Haroli Vidhan Sabha area was being counted among the best Vidhan Sabhas of the country in the field of best water management. In the Bulk Drug Park project under construction at Haroli with a cost of Rs 2000 crore, works worth Rs 66 crore related to Jal Shakti department had been completed.
Apart from other works, tanks of 50 lakh liters of water capacity had also been built in Polian and 25 lakh liters of water capacity in Dulahad. On this occasion, Shri Agnihotri gave posthumous honour to two brave workers late Rajesh Kumar and late Gullu Ram, who sacrificed their lives while discharging their duties of restoration of water supply schemes during the natural disaster in the year 2023 and presented certificates of appreciation to their families.
Apart from this, he conferred Jal Shakti Samman to 126 personnel of the Jal Shakti department who did excellent work across the state including 37 employees of Shimla Zone, 37 of Dharamshala Zone, 30 of Hamirpur Zone and 22 of Mandi Zone. The Deputy Chief Minister also visited the special exhibition based on the schemes and development works of the department along with the projects of other departments also set up in the function.
MLAs Vivek Sharma and Sudarshan Bablu, Dr. Aastha Agnihotri, Dr. Rakesh Agnihotri, State Transport Authority Members Ranjeet Rana, Ashok Thakur, State Scheduled Caste Commission Members Vijay Dogra, Pramod Kumar, Dharamchand Chaudhary, Virendra Mankotia, Vinod Bittu, all the Chief Engineers, Superintending Engineers and officers of the Water Power Department and public representatives were present in the function.