House panel to study depleting groundwater
A principal secy-level officer will assist the committee to prepare the report and it will be submitted in three months
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab assembly on Thursday unanimously agreed to constitute a House panel to study and submit a report on the depleting groundwater level in the state. Speaker Rana Kanwara Pal Singh made the announcement in this regard during discussion on the issue during a motion moved by Congress MLA Harminder Singh Gill, along with other members.
A principal secretary-level officer of the state government will assist House panel to prepare the report on the groundwater in the state and the committee will submit its report within three months, said the speaker. Speaking on behalf of the state government, rural development and panchayati raj minister Tript Rajinder Bajwa assured all possible help to the House panel in studying the serious issue, it needed emergent solution.
Participating in the debate, Congress member Rana Gurjit Singh said the way Punjab has been extracting ground water, various reports suggest that after 25 years, there will be no water left for the routine purpose even.
SAD member Harinderpal Chandumajra said there was need for re-allocation of distribution of river waters. “What share Punjab is getting was as per the needs of the state in 1976. Things have changed since. Our crop pattern immediately demands diversification to save water,” said the SAD MLA.
To encourage diversification, SAD members said, the state should make efforts to include maize in the Coarse Grain Procurement Scheme of the government of India under which the government makes procurement for Public Distribution System. “This will boost cultivation of maize as MSP will be ensured under the PDS and if the area under maize increases, the paddy cultivation will automatically come down saving water as well as power,” he said.
AAP member Kulwant Singh Pandori said water contamination was one of the reasons behind increase in cancer cases in the Malwa region.
Finance minister Manpreet Badal, said 80% of the total water used for agriculture comes from underground. “For growing one kg of paddy, 5,000 kg of water is used and the figure for one kg of wheat is 3000kg of water. This shows that actually, Punjab is not selling wheat or paddy but it is selling its water,” said Manpreet. He said as the agriculture is a state subject and the fiscal position of every state is such that there is hardly any money left for the research in agriculture, the Centre should assist states. He also underlined the need for sensitising farmers regarding use of water. “I do agriculture in Rajasthan and Punjab. Let me tell you, I get more income from my crop in Rajasthan as compared to Punjab. Farmers in Rajasthan are more sensitive towards use of water,” he said.
Stressing a break from wheatpaddy cycle to save the groundwater, AAP member Kanwar Sandhu said the state gradually ignored production of crops that needed less water, mainly the oilseeds and maize whose production from 1970 to date has fallen from 5% to 0.5% and 10% to 1.5%, respectively.
SAD member Gurpartap Wadala said the state government should use the pressure built by the farmers to press the Centre to get a package for crop diversification and making rainharvesting mandatory.
The way ground water is being extracted, reports suggest that after 25 years, there will be no water left even for routine purpose in Punjab. RANA GURJIT SINGH, Congress MLA
: Marred by militancy, political unrest, administrative clampdowns and stalled development as a result, especially in the past few years, Srinagar, which was once known as the city of gardens and clean water bodies, has found its place at the bottom in the Ease of Living Index-2020 released by the Union housing and urban affairs ministry.
However, officials believe that as many projects are underway in the city, its ranking was likely to improve in the future.
Deputy commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudhary said many projects under the Smart City mission have been taken up which will restore Srinagar’s beauty.
“The work has already started on various fronts and projects. Also, some of the parameters on which we have worked were not been included in this year’s survey, affecting the city’s rankings,” he said. While Bangalore has been ranked on top followed by Pune and Ahmedabad among cities with a population of more than a million, Bareilly, Dhanbad and Srinagar are placed at the bottom. “Unfortunately, political unrest and red-tapism are one of
the reasons for the poor ranking, besides, policymakers are not among the people who can understand the needs and requirements of the local people. So, implementation of the right policy for the right place taking the demographics into consideration will help in improving the ease of living standards,” opined Dr Umar Nazir Tibet Baqal, a prominent businessman of the city.former municipal commissioner
Shafkat Khan said there has been mass lawlessness posteruption of militancy in the 1990 and large-scale violations of the master plan in the city.
“Unplanned urbanisation of Srinagar is a huge setback in land-use issues. The other criteria are being taken up now in the Smart City plan and various central schemes of the Government of India and are being taken up aggressively by the L-G administration,”
he added.
The 15 evaluation criteria included in the ranking are governance, identity and culture, education, health, safety and security, economy, affordable housing, land use planning, public open spaces, transportation and mobility, assured water supply, waste-water management, solid waste management, power, and quality of environment.
“The capital city gets frequently waterlogged, and flooding seems to have become a permanent feature. Apart from this, worst civic sense, vehicle parking, shopping and recreational activities are missing here due to which the pressure is mounting on whatever space is available within the city. Hydrological systems and solid waste management are also inadequate. The breathing space we had in the form of lakes, water bodies, grasslands and green cover is shrinking rapidly. Even the Zabarwan Mountains have taken a huge hit and the flood basin of the Jhelum river is non-existent and there is hardly anything left to reclaim,” said Jaleel Jeelani, an environmental filmmaker.
Many people, however, say the survey has revealed the truth about the top city of J&K. “The placing of Srinagar at the bottom completely contradicts the projections of Srinagar as a smart city by the officials. Irrespective of the official claims, every resident here knows that the city lags behind even on the basic parameters such as roads, water and electricity. Conflict has often been used as an excuse by the authorities for unplanned development in the city,” said Gowhar Ahmad, who works with an NGO.