JAMMU: Minister for Public Health Engineering, Irrigation and Flood Control Sukhnandan Kumar today visited various areas of Suchetgarh and R S Pura and took stock of the damages caused to the Tawi banks, canals, protection bunds and crops due to incessant rains. MLA Suchetgarh, Sham Choudhary and MLA R S Pora, Dr Gagan Bhagat, a team of senior officers of various engineering wings accompanied the Minister during his visit.
While inspecting Ranbir Canal and its tributaries, the Minister issued instructions to the concerned engineers to start cleaning and desilting of all the canals to provide irrigation facilities at the tail-end. He inspected tributary of Ranbir Canal from Miran Sahib to Agarachack, Water Supply Scheme, Jassore, protection wall at Badiyal besides crop fields in the area.
The Minister visited village Jassore in Suchetgarh where Nikki Tawi has damaged a portion of the river bank causing threat to the crops. He was briefed that a proposal for construction of a protection bund at an estimated cost of Rs 26.91 crore has been formulated by the concerned authorities. The Minister assured the people that the protection bund will be constructed under Border Area Development Programme (BADP) as early as possible.
The Minister said that government is closely monitoring the situation arisen due to incessant rains in the State adding that the administration has been geared up to take every precautionary step to safeguard public life and property. The Minister directed the concerned officers to ensure proper monitoring of the situation and asked them to work with utmost dedication to come up to the expectations of the people. He said motive of the government is to provide all basic facilities to the people at grass root level for which coordinated efforts should be made.