Use water judiciously, urges Jagadish Reddy

Suryapet: State Energy Minister Jagadish Reddy expressed concern over the depleting water resources and urged the people to use water judiciously for welfare of the future generations.The Minister attended the Jala Nidhi (Jalam-Manam) programme, as the Chief Guest, on Saturday at the Collectorate in Suryapet.

Speaking at the occasion, he said that our ancestors recognised the importance of water thousand years ago. While the Kakatiya rulers constructed chain water bodies the Nizam’s encouraged people to dig water harvesting pits and waived tax to those who followed his instructions in order to save water.

The Minister expressed concern over the depletion and pollution of water. He blamed the former Andhra Pradesh rulers for the present water crisis in Telangana.He said ancestors drew water directly from the wells using containers such as buckets and vessels but the present generation is finding ways to extract water from 1000 feet.

It is the responsibility of the people to overcome this miserable situation by constructing harvest pits in every house hold and farm ponds in every field, he said. The construction of trenches in the fields would be carried out under NREGS scheme, he added. Minister also announced that he is adopting eight villages from Suryapet constituency to make them drought free by adopting water saving measures. Exemplifying the formation of Telangana, Minister urged the youth to create awareness among people on water saving.

Retired engineer’s association leaders Shyam Sunder Reddy, Chandra Mouli, Ramana Naik and Damoder Reddy explained the various water saving methods including construction of trenches and farm ponds that will help overcome the drought situations.