Secretary PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Farooq Ahmad Shah Saturday directed that all the new water supply projects constructed in four districts of South Kashmir must be completed within 18 months so that safe drinking water would be provided to the people there.The Secretary gave the direction during a high-level meeting convened to review the present status of various new water supply projects constructed in Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam districts of south Kashmir.During the meeting, the Secretary was informed that there are around 78 new water supply projects, which are constructed in four districts of south Kashmir and are being constructed at a cost of Rs 112.83 crore.The Secretary directed that all the projects must be completed within 18 months and some of the projects nearing their completion must be made fully functional by March next year.Shah said that department is taking various path-breaking initiatives to provide potable drinking facility to people, adding special focus is being given to those areas which have the scarcity of drinking water.
He impressed upon all the concerned to complete all the projects in a time bound manner so that public can avail benefits of these projects.The meeting also discussed various steps to be taken to bring improvement in water supply schemes by way of ensuring the upgradation of the schemes so that uninterrupted water supply would be made available to the people.The Secretary also stressed upon the officers to collect the fee from their consumers and stressed that cleanliness should be maintained in all the filtration plants so that people will drink the water without any hesitation.
The meeting was attended by Chief Engineer Public Health Engineering (PHE) Kashmir, Abdul Wahid, Director Planning PHE, IFC, SE, Hydraulic circle Srinagar, Budgam, Ganderbal, SE groundwater, SE mechanical, Executive Engineers and other senior officers of the department were present during the meeting.