Chandigarh, May 25: Expressing satisfaction over the progress made so far in the campaign to clean the ponds in the villages of the state, the Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Mr. Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa has directed the officers of the department and the Panchayats to expedite the campaign so that this work could be completed by June 10 in any case.
Mr. Bajwa said that under this campaign launched on May 11, water from 3848 ponds out of 12451 ponds has been cleared and work is underway to draw water from 4500 ponds, which would be completed in the next two to three days.
He said that silt has been removed from 297 ponds and work of removing silt is underway in 1304 ponds. He also said that according to the survey conducted by the department, water needs to be extracted from 12451 ponds in the state, while silt needs to be removed from 7649 ponds.
The Rural Development Minister has directed the officers of the department to immediately start the work of drawing water from the remaining 4103 ponds so that not even a single pond in the state remains without cleaning by June 10.
He also asked to engage village labourers in this work so that they could earn something in this hour of crisis to meet their livelihood needs.
The Rural Development Minister said that all the ponds in Punjab would be converted into Sewage Treatment Plants in phases as per the affordable model developed by the Punjab Pollution Control Board from Thapar University to make the environment of the villages of the state cleaner and healthier.
He said that village wastewater would be treated through these plants and provided to the farmers for irrigation.
Meanwhile, Seema Jain, Financial Commissioner, Rural Development and Panchayats said that the cleaning of ponds was being carried out in a planned manner by appointing senior officers of the department in charge of each district.
She expressed confidence that with the cooperation of the officers of the department, village panchayats and the people this very important task would be completed on time.
