by Anup Biswas

Haflong : As a part of the Jan Andolan for Jal Shakti Abhiyan, several sharing cum awareness meetings are being extensively organized around the distinct of Dima Hasao by the line departments directly involved in this programme. One such meeting was held at Choto-washilling-II village community hall under the Diyungbra block today where three members team from Government of India, under the Ministry of Jal Shakti Abhiyan also attended along with the officials from other departments of Dima Hasao.

This meeting was organized by Pan Rural Development department of Dima Hasao in collaboration with various line departments such as PHE, Agriculture, Irrigation, Forest, Fishery and Soil Conservation. Around 500 villagers attended the awareness meeting where the people shared their concern on various water scarcity and agriculture related issue experienced by them. After a through brief about the purpose of the meeting representatives from each 6 departments spoke stressing on the need to integrate the actions of every plan with water conservation plan.

Vandana Jain, Joint Secy, GoI and central nodal officer in her speech encouraged to involve as many people as possible including SHGs, NGOs, community, students, etc to cooperate and support in the campaign for water security in this district so as to ensure better future to fight water scarcity. Along with her, Deputy Secys from GoI, Bhaswar Gangopadhyay and Rajesh Kumar Gulati were also present and interacted with the people during and after the programme. The central team visited various project sights since their arrival yesterday accompanied by Vahlhai Doungel, Block Development Officer (BDO), Diyungbra block.

Speaking on the occasion council Secy and Project Director of DRDA L. Z. Nampui said, “There should be sustainable efforts to conserve the water bodies and to protect and preserve water resource, recharge and renovate the water bodies at schools, institutions, community levels for which the departments alone cannot bring success. We need people’s cooperation to be successful in this Jan Andolan for jal Shakti Abhiyan to fight water scarcity in Dima Hasao”.