761 villages given water through tankers: Gujarat govt

Gandhinagar

As many as 761 villages across the Gujarat facing acute water crisis have received water through tankers, the state government said today.

Till last week, 530 villages were given water through tankers. Now, 231 more villages are being covered, taking the total number to 761 villages, said an official release quoting Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama.

Chudasama heads a sub-committee of minister for the assessment of scarcity of water. The committee today held it’s weekly meeting at Gandhinagar to assess the situation and steps being taken by the government.

It said 91 out of 162 municipalities have been given water tankers of 5,000 to 10,000 litre capacity to ferry water in their respective regions.

As a proactive measure, officials are calling up sarpanch or other leaders of around 100 villages daily from Gandhinagar-based control room to get information about availability of water and cattle-fodder in their villages.

Till now, 885 villages have been contacted across Gujarat, the release added.

Gujarat government has declared 994 villages across the state, all from parched Saurashtra and Kutch region as ‘partially scarcity-hit’ till now.

According to the government, several teams are engaged in repairing existing hand-pumps across the state and so far 987 hand-pumps have been repaired, it said.

PTI