Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Choudhary Zulfkar Ali on Monday asked concerned officers to expedite completion work on various ongoing Water Supply Schemes (WSS) to make them functional at earliest for the benefit of the general public.The Minister said this during a review meeting of various works executed by Public Health Engineer (PHE), Irrigation and Flood Control in Darhal constituency of Rajouri district.He said the aim of developmental schemes is to make the life of people easier, and if the scheme is related to clean drinking water, its relevance gets excelled by manifolds.The Minister asked the officers to make ensure that work on Larkuti, and Tarkasi WSSs are completed at an earliest to make them functional in current financial year.Besides, the meeting was informed that eight WSSs costing Rs four crore are under execution in Darhal constituency and would be completed during 2017-18.During the meeting, Chief Engineer PHE, Susheel Aima assured to supply the material (pipes) worth of three crore for the completion of the eight schemes and assured that the issue for the balance amount would be taken up with Planning and Development department.
Highlighting the importance of completing Aanas Drinking WSS immediately, the Minister said the scheme is so important that its start would make 10 other schemes related to it functional. “It is therefore, imperative to complete all the pending work on it so that general public would start reaping its benefits by March this year,” he added.Seeking update on Aanas Irrigation scheme, the Minister directed the officers to submit a detailed note highlighting the bottlenecks coming in the execution of the scheme and assured that the issue of delinking of the scheme would be taken up with Union minister for Water Resources. Regarding hand pump issue, the Minister called for concerted efforts to make hand pumps in Darhal constituency functional. “Priority should be given to the most affected people who do not have any other source of clean drinking water,” the Minister said. He also directed the concerned officers of PHE to get an audit of work done on various hand pumps done in the area, besides, seeking detailed report on reason for delay in re-development work on various pumps.Secretary, PHE, Sanjeev Verma, along with other concerned officers also attended the meeting.