The Rural Development and Panchayat Minister, Punjab, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa today took stock of the progress made till date in campaign pertaining to the cleaning of ponds across the entire State. Instructing the departmental officers to ensure maximum participation of the people in the campaign, the minister said that the desired results can only be achieved in the campaign if masses living in rural belts take to this work as their own.Addressing the departmental officers via video conferencing, Mr. Bajwa cleaning the ponds in each village through desilting mode every year is necessary because this activity results in rain water being absorbed in the earth thus leading to the relative ease in keeping it's level higher. He also said that Punjab today faces the biggest challenge in the form of stemming the trend of depleting water level beneath the earth. The minister directed the officers to also exhort the people living in the rural areas to go for restricted use of water.Mr. Bajwa urged the officers to strive in the direction of implementing the Seechewal model in at least 5 villages of each block so as to inspire the inhabitants of the other villages also to opt for this model.
He also expressed confidence that the people living in the rural areas can work wonders in this regard, they just need a little bit of encouragement.The minister on the occasion had a word of appreciation for the officers showing better results in this regard while urging others to work with more earnestness. Exhorting the field officers to implement this campaign more effectively from the next year onwards and send detailed report along with their suggestions as well as implications encountered.Earlier, the Finance Secretary of the department while giving detailed info about the pond cleaning campaign block wise said that out of the total 13124 villages of the state, the work of cleaning up the ponds of 6399 villages is going on war footing and out of these the ponds of 2699 villages have been cleaned of water while ponds in 926 villages have been cleared of silt.The Director, Mission Tandarust Punjab, Mr. Kahan Singh Pannu exhorted the officers to take the campaign to its logical conclusion within a fortnight. He also added that while most of the officers are working with full dedication in this regard there have also been some examples of laxity cropping up which can derail the campaign. He also divulged that during these 3 holidays he would your all the Districts of the State and take stock of the situation on ground.