Public campaign will be launched for water conservation: Khattar

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar Sunday said a public campaign will be launched for water conservation in the state.

He also said that a 20-km canal will be constructed by the Irrigation Department from Yamunanagar to Indri and will be merged with the Western Jamuna Canal, an official release stated here.

The chief minister was speaking after laying foundation stones and inaugurating development works worth Rs 95 crore in Karnal.

"A public campaign will be launched for water conservation," he said.

Khattar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is concerned about water conservation.

In his first address in the second edition of monthly show 'Mann ki Baat', Modi pitched for conservation of rain water, saying there is a pressing need to make it a mass movement on the lines of the cleanliness drive.

"The prime minister has called upon every citizen of this country to conserve water," Khattar said.

He said that water conservation has become all the more necessary as 200 districts of the country have been declared as 'dark zone', of which 18 are in Haryana.

Khattar said farmers of the state have been requested to reduce cultivation of water-guzzling crops like paddy.

"The farmers of the state cultivated different crops on 40,000 hectares of land other than paddy, thus saving large quantities of water," Khattar, who had recently appealed to the peasants in this regard, said.

For this, the chief minister has expressed gratitude to the farmers.

Earlier, while reviewing the progress of the ongoing development works with the councilors of the municipal corporation and officials in Karnal, Khattar said an Inter-District Council has been set up in Haryana to make municipal corporations and other local bodies independent.

The chief minister will be the chairman of this council and local units of every district have been included in this.

He said urban units would have only one head so that they can coordinate properly.

Khattar said there should be a session in the municipal corporations on the lines of the Vidhan Sabha.

A meeting of the Municipal Corporation should be held every month and discussions on development should be held in these sessions.

Such a system will be set up in the state and the Karnal Municipal Corporation has been selected for this purpose.