Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Sham Lal Choudhary today directed the senior officers of the department to take all necessary steps to provide drinking water to the people in the Kashmir Valley in view of prevailing dry spell.The Minister gave these directions to the officers during a meeting convened to discuss the action plan to overcome the problem of shortage of water from the natural resources due to dry spell in the Kashmir region.Sham Choudhary asked the concerned to ensure adequate supply of drinking water and install hand pumps immediately in the areas where water supply is low. He also asked for repairing non-functional hand pumps besides initiating new works to augment water supply in the water stressed areas.The Minister reviewed division wise functioning of PHE and I&FC department and asked the concerned to take proactive measures for resolving people’s issues mainly supply of potable water to every household. He said stressed on the need for making immediate preparations to deal with situation. “Every necessary step needs to be taken at this time to maintain regular supply of drinking water to the people” he stressed.Sham Choudhary asked the officers to learn from the situations arising from weather conditions so that in future all possible measures can be taken in advance to provide regular supply of drinking water to the people.The meeting was also informed about the division wise status of ongoing schemes and projects. Sham Choudhary directed the concerned to personally monitor the schemes and ensure their timely completion.