SHIMLA: Apart from asking Jal Shakit engineers to apply the latest rain water and snow harvesting technology to execute the water projects,  Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri directed them to make every  effort to conserver water sources to meet out any water shortage crisis  in Himachal Pradesh in the future.  

In a review meeting of the Jal Shakti Department held at Jal Shakti Bhawan Agnihotri said, "There is a need to lay more emphasis on rain and snow water harvesting, groundwater recharge and source stability".

To maintain the quality and conservation of water all the officers should also organize awareness programs. "We should also try to protect and preserve traditional water bodies", he said.

The state government is working towards sustainable and equitable development of the state.  A work culture should be maintained by all the concerned officers, he said.

The officers should work to make 24x7 water available to the common people in the state, he added.

Apart from drinking water, we need to focus on providing more irrigational facilities, he said.

With the aim of improving area under irrigation, rapid re-assessment will be done so that need basis work should be ensured, he said.

He asked the officers to frequently visit the field so that better work could be ensured.

 Mukesh said a pilot project has been set up in Ghanahatti under Internet of Things (IoT) based monitoring equipment system. Another such project is being set up in Sirmaur.

To maintain the quality of water in the state, 67 laboratories have been established, out of which 58 laboratories have been accredited with NABL, Agnihotri said. 

To ensure transparency in the tender process, the bid capacity and work according to the rules should be taken care of.

He said every officer of the level of Executive Engineer should adopt at least 3 schemes each.

Superintending Engineer to Engineer-in-Chief should adopt at least one big scheme so that quality of work could be improved, he said.

Priority areas should also be defined and all the officers should work in coordination to avoid any hindrance in the development.

Present with him were Secretary Jal Shakti Amitabh Awasthi, Engineer-in-Chief Sanjeev Kaul, Engineer-in-Chief (Projects) Dharmendra Gill, Chief Engineers, Superintending Engineers and other senior officers of the department.