Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today issued orders to release of water from the Krishanagiri reservoir from tomorrow for irrigation purposes.
Accepting the request by farming community in the region, water from the reservoir would be released from tomorrow for agricultural use, an official release said.
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The Union minister said Bihar had declared 19 of its
districts and 160 villages as hit by drinking water shortage "which seems far from true."
Bihar has total 38 districts and 40,110 villages and water condition in many of them were not satisfactory, he said.
He said implementation of 'seven resolves' of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar which includes piped drinking water to every household would take time.
The suggestion given by RJD president Lalu Prasad about digging wells to meet water needs could be beneficial in future.
"But for meeting immediate needs of drinking water, the Bihar government should go back to handpump, among others," he said.
Besides Bihar and Haryana, other states declared as drought-hit are Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnatake, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
He said the prime minister has set a target of providing water supply connection to 90 per cent of the households across the country by 2022.
"The target is to provide 90 litres of water daily to every citizen by 2022," he added.
