Jal Shakti Abhiyan Launched in Tura, Meghalaya

Staff Correspondent

Tura: As part of the Pan India Campaign – “The Jal Shakti Abhiyan” was launched by the Commissioner and Secretary, Community and Rural Department (C& RD), Meghalaya, P Sampath Kumar along with CEO, MSRLS, Shantanu Sharma here on Monday.

It may be mentioned that the campaign aims to target water stressed areas for stocktaking and conservation initiatives since India faces deficit monsoon season and widespread water shortages and also to increase the water table in water stressed areas. Therefore, in view of this, a review meeting of all Deputy Commissioners of eleven districts was also held today simultaneously through video conference from NIC, Tura. Deputy Commissioners, Project Directors, Block Development Officers and other officials of the respective districts took part in the meeting.

In the review meeting, Commissioner and Secretary, C&RD, P Sampath Kumar emphasized on the strategy and action for taking up Water Conservation and National Rural Mission (NRM) related works during the monsoon season as part of Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA), a nationwide water campaign launched by the Centre. Stating that the campaign is time bound and on a mission mode which will be implemented phase wise, he said that phase I commences from July 1 to September 15 while phase II will be from October 1 to March 31, 2020.

The main objective of the water campaign is to ramp up rain water harvesting and conservation efforts so as to promote efficient use of water especially during the dry months, he added.

During the meeting, he also directed the Block Development Officers to identify water stressed areas/villages and to come up with model plan estimate and other interventions including rain water harvesting, construct check dams wherever possible, spring shed development, renovation of traditional water bodies, revive and reuse borewell structures, etc.

Referring to the mass plantation during World Environment Day recently, he also suggested for intensive afforestation in water catchment areas of the districts. Informing that every State, district and blocks have their own irrigation plans, he stressed on the need to integrate this with water conservation plan and also to involve as many people as possible including SHGs, VECs, NGOs, community, students, etc., to cooperate and support in the campaign for water security in our respective districts.

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