Over 17K cr spent by govt to make surface water available: Raj

More than 17,322 crore were spent by the state government in the last four years to make surface water available to the people, Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) Minister Surendra Goyal said today.
He said that one crore people were provided benefit of surface drinking water during the period and another 50 lakh will be added to the tally by December 2018.
Listing out the achievements of his department at a press conference, Goyal said that the government was focused to provide surface drinking water available to the people instead of ground water.
The government made available drinking water in 22 towns, 2,785 villages and 4,600 hamlets through large drinking water projects, he added.

Comparing the BJP rule with the previous Congress rule, the state Cabinet minister said that the previous government had spent Rs 12,225 crore in the last five years, whereas the current government spent Rs 17,332 crore in four years.
In rural areas, the previous government had spent Rs 10,036 crore in the last five years whereas the BJP government spent Rs 13,662 crore in its four years, he said.
In urban areas, the previous government spent Rs 2188 crore whereas BJP government spent Rs 36,00 crore to benefit the people through 34 large drinking projects, the minister said.
Contrary to the Congress government, which could not do any innovation, Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government set up 952 de-florification units and 619 solar water pumps across the state, Goyal said.