Cabinet Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal inaugurated the work of laying 53 km long new gullies and irrigation pipes at a cost of more than Rs 10 crore in various villages of Lehra constituency including Ballaran, Raidharana, Chural Kalan and Chural Khurd, Gurnekalan, Rajlaheri and Bhutal Kalan. He expressed gratitude to the Chief Minister Punjab Mr Bhagwant Singh Mann on behalf of the people of the constituency.
The Minister said that fulfilling its promise of providing water for irrigation to every field in state, the Punjab government has made irrigation water available in many areas after long duration of 30 years.He added that for the development of the canal system, the AAP government has carried out works worth about Rs 4500 crore in the past years and about Rs 3264 crore are being spent this year.
Mr. Goyal said that till the formation of the current government in the state, one-third of Punjab’s share of water was not being used because the previous governments had not paid any attention to improving the state’s canal system.
But due to the efforts of the present government, the utilization of canal water has increased from 62 percent to 86 percent. He added that other states have tried hard to claim more water than their share, but the Punjab government did not budge.
The Minister said that the Punjab government’s goal is to ensure that every drop of Punjab’s canal water reaches the farmers’ fields. Consequently, this will not only save groundwater, but also save farmers money and greatly increase the fertility of the land. Agricultural experts believe that canal water contains more nutrients needed by the soil than groundwater.
The Cabinet Minister said that the work of laying canal water pipelines in a large number of villages of the constituency is going on a war footing, which will provide canal water facility to a large area of the constituency and reduce dependence on groundwater.
He added that efforts of government to provide canal water will prove helpful in saving the groundwater. PA Rakesh Kumar Gupta, XEN AXI Jagmeet Singh Bhakar, SDO Harpreet Singh, including officers of various departments, village panchs, sarpanchs and dignitaries were present.
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