The Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Sham Lal Chaudhary today convened a high level meeting of officers and officials of PHE, Irrigation, Flood control, ERA and PDD to discuss the preparedness to tackle the foreseeable water shortage due to the expected high temperatures during the summers this year.The meeting was attended by Speaker J&K Legislative Assembly and MLA Gandhi Nagar Kavinder Gupta, MLA Jammu East Rajesh Gupta, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) Shamsher Singh Manhas, Secretary, PHE/Irrigation and Flood Control Department Sanjeev Verma.Giving strict directives to all officials especially the PHE and PDD employees, Sham Lal said that departments need to increase inter-departmental cooperation and work together to ensure that the people do not have to suffer. He said that surprise inspections will be conducted regularly to checks and ensure presence of employees at their designated duties and warned that action will taken against employee found slacking in their duties or found absent from their stations.
The minister asked for ensuring that public’s problems are heard and redressed in a timely manner. He asked for the telephone help lines to be responded to by the concerned officers. He asserted that department needs to ensure water is regularly provided to every household during summersCoordinating agencies like ERA and PDD working on various projects with PHE were issued instructions to complete and deliver the respective projects and assignments they are involved in at the earliest and ensure the works are always completed in a time bound manner.Strategies, plans were also discussed and deliberated upon to replenish the ground water levels in the state and finding a long term solution for the water scarcity.The minister emphasizing on proper utilization of water resources said that government and society need to come together and make conscious efforts to conserve water.Chief Engineer PHE, Chief Engineer PDD, Executive engineers, AEEs were present in the meeting.