CHANDIGARH: Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister Punjab on Tuesday issued instructions to the Water Supply Department to construct tanks with minimum capacity of 15 days usage by that village so that all villages in Punjab were supplied uninterrupted potable water supply.

Reviewing the implementation of Rural Water Supply Schemes here on Tuesday Badal emphasized that this additional storage capacity was necessary especially for the villages being supplied potable water through canal based schemes. He said that due to rotational closure of canals for repair or any other reason, every village should have storage capacity equivalent to 15 days usage of the villages. The water supply department was asked to quickly the survey the villages and upgrade the capacity of the tank where ever required.

Taking a serious note of illegal water connections and tullu pumps installed on the water line, Badal instructed immediate removal of tullu pumps.

Emphasizing the need of providing quality potable water to every citizen of Punjab,Badal said that besides installation of RO in every difficult village in Malwa and a belt of Majha being supplied water through canal based water supply schemes, we must ensure installation double ultra filtration technology  in all villages being supplied water supply through tubewells.

It was informed in the meeting that RO System was already working successfully in 327 villages of 8 districts that has been installed at the cost of Rs. 34.82 Crores.98 villages in district Bathinda, 78 villages in Mansa, 129 villages in district Mukatsar, 11 villages in Sangrur and 11 villages in Tarn Taran were already covered by RO system to the complete satisfaction of rural population.

Prominent amongst those who were present in the meeting included Viswajeet Khanna, Secretary, Science & Technology; P.S. Aujla, Secretary, Water Supply and Sanitation and Manvesh Singh Sidhu, Additional Secretary to Deputy Chief Minister.