Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday said that this year emphasis has been laid on the implementation of more schemes to re-use rainwater.
Along with dealing with the flood situation, this water can be used properly in groundwater recharging and dry areas. For this, 320 new schemes have been approved under the Drought Relief and Flood Control Board, under which an amount of about Rs 494 crore will be spent. The Chief Minister was presiding over the 53rd meeting of the Haryana State Drought Relief and Flood Control Board on Monday. During this, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, Agriculture Minister JP Dalal, and Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal were also present.
The Chief Minister said that in the previous years, the meeting of the Flood Control and Drought Relief Board was held during the month of May. The present government has decided to hold this meeting twice a year, in the month of January and May, so that the work done can be reviewed before the rains during the month of May. He said that schemes worth Rs 221 crore have been prepared for the drainage and reuse of stagnant water in the fields.
The Chief Minister said that the benefits of the schemes implemented by the government last year have now been seen in the Yamuna area. For the first time during the rainy days, the flood water did not fill the area of Yamuna. He said that compensation of Rs 650 crore has to be given in districts like Bhiwani, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Hisar and Sonipat for damage to crops due to waterlogging.
Khattar said that this year the government has set a target to eliminate the problem of waterlogging from 1 lakh acres of land. For this, the affected farmers will have to register on the portal. Farmers will have to pay only 20 percent of the expenditure; the remaining 80 percent will be spent by the government.