Secretary Public Health Engineering (PHE), Irrigation, Flood Control (I&FC) and DMRRR Farooq Ahmad Shah Thursday said that Government is committed to provide safe drinking water to each household and efforts are on to accomplish the mission.He said this while chairing a meeting of State Level Committee (SLC) to redefine modalities for Estimation of Ground Water Resources (GWR) in the state here today.The meeting was attended by Chief Engineer PHE Jammu, Ashok Gandotra, Chief Engineer I&FC Jammu, Vinod Gupta, Superintendent Engineer Mechanical Kashmir, Scientists of Central Ground Water Board, representatives from Rural Sanitation, Agriculture, Industries & Commerce Departments and other concerned.Speaking on the occasion, Shah said that Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and PHE department should work together and identify those areas where scarcity of drinking water persists.
He said the shortfall can be addressed to some extent by digging bore wells and preservation of springs.“Our priority is to provide potable drinking water to the people living in hilly and remote areas so that they may not face any inconvenience,” he added.Scientists from (CGWB) asked the PHE and allied departments to provide data of such areas were issues of drinking water remains so that bore wells, springs would be upgraded and updated to facilitate the people at earliest.Later, Shah in a separate meeting reviewed the status of land acquisition for construction of quarters for migrant employees under Prime Minister’s package with the Deputy Commissioners of Baramulla, Anantnag, Kupwara, Srinagar, Budgam, Pulwama and Kulgam districts through video conferencing.He directed the Deputy Commissioners to disburse the compensation which has been already released for damages due to recent snowfall declared as special natural calamity under Disaster Management, Relief, and Rehabilitation & Reconstruction to the affected farmers immediately.