RANA GURJIT WARNS OF ‘WATER EMERGENCY’

PHAGWARA:If crop diversification was not undertaken at the earliest and the area under paddy plantation not reduced, Punjab would face a water emergencylike situation, state power and irrigation minister Rana Gurjit Singh has said.

“If water is not used judiciously and saved optimally, then water emergency is written on the wall in the times to come,” the minister said, while talking to reporters at the house of Congress leader Harjit Singh Parmar in the town on Sunday. He was in town for the first time after becoming a minister.

Maintaining that the real panacea of ills afflicting Punjab peasantry lay in crop diversification, the minister advocated quick shift from present wheatpaddy cycle to horticulture, fruits, vegetables and other crops that required less water. “If precious resource of water is not saved, then not only Punjab but other parts of the country will be embroiled in waterwars,” he warned.

He said that as many as 104 blocks of Punjab were declared ‘black’ by the human resource development ministry. “This means that water of these blocks is polluted and not drinkable,” he elaborated.

Accusing the SAD-BJP government of playing with the sentiments of people, he alleged that Badal government had discontinued the crop diversification started by the Amarinder Singh government in 2002-07 by promoting citrus plantation. “Though former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal knew the grave situation of depleting underground water table, Akalis arbitrarily gave 65,000 tubewell connections to their favourites, ignoring claims of the needy farmers,” he alleged.

“Due to this biased approach, many farmers managed to get two connections while others were left without even one,” he said.

The minister said the government was giving Rs 65,000 to Rs 70,000 crore subsidy for free supply to farmers.