Barinder Saluja, Chandigarh,April 6 : The Public Health Engineering Minister, Mrs Kiran Choudhary, has directed officers to work diligently and with enthusiasm for the noble cause of ensuring drinking water supply to the people of the state, especially during the ensuing summer months.
The Minister, who was presiding over a meeting of senior officers here today, pointed out that pendency of electricity connections had mounted, resulting in delay in commissioning of a large number of public health installations, vital for ensuring water supply.
“As summer season is approaching fast, the people of the state must be benefited by releasing electricity connections to all public health installations on a war-footing. The field officers should be in touch with their counterparts for reducing the pendency of power connections”, she said.
The Minister asked officers to gear up their machinery and draw up a contingency plan to bring succor to the masses. They were directed to take up surveillance work, particularly in towns, to detect insanitary connections, and take quick steps for their rectification.
Emphasising the need for detection of leakages, Mrs Choudhary said that steps should be taken to get them plugged immediately to avoid wastage of the precious resource. Sewers across the state should be cleaned up within one month.
The department should utilize the entire budget amounting to Rs 770 crore and Rs 260 crore expected from the Central Government in 2011-12. There should be complete transparency in the processing of e-tendering and the officers should not succumb to any extraneous pressures.
Mrs Choudhary said that quality of works should be maintained at all costs. A sampling schedule should be drawn and proper procedure of sampling introduced. She asked officers to take punitive action against the erring agencies which were at default.
She desired that a proper mechanism for redressal of public complaints should be put in place, and these should be disposed of expeditiously.
The meeting was attended by the superintending engineers and executive engineers of Bhiwani, Gurgaon, Hisar, Jind, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Rewari and Palwal Circle. Mr P. K. Gupta, FC&PS, PHED, Mr A. K. Kheterpal, Engineer-in-Chief, Public Health Engineering Department and other senior officers of the department were also present.