Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today said that a pond management authority would be constituted for the protection, conservation, development and rejuvenation of more than 14,000 ponds in the state.
The chief minister also said that the unspent Rs 60 crore of the Rs 100 crore budget of the Haryana Swarna Jayanti Celebrations Authority would be diverted to initiatives being taken to double farmer's income and conserve water.
Khattar made the announcements at the'National Seminar on Enhancing Efficacy of Usage of Water' in Kurukhsetra on the occasion of 52nd Haryana Day.
The event was organised by the Irrigation Department and the Haryana Irrigation Research and Management Institute.
Magsaysay award recipient and water conservationist Rajendra Singh praised the state government's feat of taking water to the tail ends of southern Haryana and Masani Dam after 30 years, an official release said here.
Former Chief Election Eommissioner of India S Y Quraishi also spoke at the event.
Khattar said that 50 to 60 small lakes would be developed in areas adjoining Delhi to help store and recharge the ground water-table to help the national capital meet its water demands.
Delhi has a population of about 2.5 crore and after adding the population of adjoining districts of Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Noida, it reaches up to four crore, he said.
"Keeping all this in mind, it has been decided to develop 50 to 60 small lakes or water bodies in the areas adjoining Delhi so that the water stored could be utilised to meet the growing requirement of water," he said.
The Public Health and Engineering Department would tap the excess water flowing in villages and put the same into ponds, he said.
Digging of ponds would be carried out every year, he said, adding that the water would be used for irrigation of 30 to 100 acresof land.
Emphasising on the need of rain water conservation, the chief minister said that check dams would be constructed at eight to nine places in the Shivalik foothills.
Earlier, in his key note address, Singh said it was for the first time in last 32 years that water has reached to tail ends of the state.
The micro-irrigation projects such as those in Pehowa in Kurukshetra are the need of the hour, he said
Quraishi said that water conservation is the need of the hour for which competitive multiple sectoral management is required.
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