Uttarakhand: Dhami held a review meeting regarding drinking water supply, gave instructions to all the District Magistrates through VC to reduce the response time of drinking water complaints

CM Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday held a review meeting with the District Magistrates through VC regarding the supply of drinking water during the summer in the Secretariat. He instructed the officials to expedite the plan to deliver drinking water through pipeline to every village and city of the state, replace tube wells in minimum time, keep fire hydrants smooth, build afforestation and check dams in the catchment area, revive the sources in coordination with SARA and prepare a policy for water enrichment, ensure water supply using solar pumps in remote areas.

CM Dhami said that according to the forecast of the Meteorological Department, there is a possibility of extreme heat this year. For this, all the DMs should identify the places with drinking water shortage and prepare an action plan, how water will be supplied in those areas. Along with this, the message of saving water should be spread through schools, panchayats and social media. He said that to reduce the impact of forest fire incidents in summer, valves should be made from drinking water schemes going through the forests so that the fire can be extinguished immediately.

CM Dhami directed to keep the toll free number of drinking water operational at all costs. Also, timely disposal of complaints lodged in the toll free number should be ensured. An intensive checking campaign should also be conducted to prevent misuse of water. He also directed to identify water leakages and ensure immediate repair and arrangement of buffer material and workers for repair. Also, motor pumps, electrical equipment and pipe spares should be repaired immediately if they get damaged and also instructed to take special care of the purity of water. He said that GPS enabled system should be arranged on tankers for monitoring and effective arrangement of tankers and water rates should also be fixed for private tankers.

The CM said that small dams and barrages will be built by stopping rainwater. This will prevent rainwater from getting wasted and water will be used properly in the summer season. For this, all DMs will identify the sites of their districts within three weeks and provide proposals. Along with this, there is also a plan to build a series of check dams in the districts. He said that water is still being transported through horses and mules at many places in the mountains, a long-term plan should be made for those places.

Vice Chairman Infrastructure Monitoring Development Council Vishwas Dabur, Chief Secretary Anand Bardhan, Principal Secretary RK Sudhanshu, Secretary Shailesh Bagoli, Commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey, Secretary Vinod Kumar Suman, Ranveer Singh Chauhan, Vishal Mishra, Mrs Apoorva Pandey along with Kumaon Commissioner Deepak Rawat and DMs of all districts were connected through VC in the meeting.