NEW DELHI: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Wednesday called on Union Minister of Water Resources Saif-Ud-Din Soz here in his office at Shram Shakti Bhawan and sought an early clearance of various pending irrigation projects with the GOI.

Briefing the Union Minister of Water Resources, Badal urged him to approve the project of Rehabilitation of 1st Patiala Feeder and Kotla Branch with an estimated cost of Rs.123.80 crore that had already been approved by the Central Water Commission (CWC) for funding by GOI.  

Badal also impressed upon Soz to also take up the project of Sirhind canal under Extension, Renovation, Modernization (ERM) programme as it was the oldest canal over 125 years since the time of British.   The canal had outlived its period thereby reducing its water intake capacity considerably. 

Showing concern over the fast depletion of water table, .Badal also asked the Ministry of Water Resources to rebuild/ repair all the water courses in the state under Command Area Development (CAD) programme as the farmers especially of Southern districts of Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar, Ferozepur, Faridkot and Moga were worst hit by the scarcity of irrigation water due to the heavy deposition of silt in these channels and requested the Ministry of Water Resources to amend the guidelines of CAD to provide financial assistance for water courses which were more that 25 years old.   Badal also urged Prof. Soz to increase the allocation of funds under Accelerated Irrigation Building Programme (AIBP) as Punjab was agrarian state depending substantially on canal irrigation.  He stated that the state had received no allocation in 2006-07 against Rs.24.82 crore in 2005-06 under AIBP.

Soz assured Badal of full support and cooperation to the Chief Minister for expeditiously execution of the various irrigation projects in the state.  He said that the Ministry had already approved the Shah Nahar and Kandi canal project of Rs.273 crore out of which GOI would give grant to the tune of 25% and state's share would be 75%.  He asked Mr.Badal to send a detailed proposal of Sirhind canal within a week so that he could get it examined and approved on the top priority.  

He also mentioned that he would soon depute, Secretary Ministry of Water Resources to visit Punjab to assess the feasibility report of different irrigation works to be executed in the state.  He appreciated the concern of Mr.Badal about the scarcity of ground water and urged him to go for harvesting of rain water and recharge of ground water to maintain the level of water table.  He also asked Badal to adopt a model bill circulated to all states for the conservation of water as it was the life line of the mankind.  Badal assured Prof. Soz that he would discuss the modalities to pass this legislation in the next assembly session.  

Badal was accompanied by his Principal Secretary DS Guru, MD Punjab Agro Himmat Singh and Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Gagandeep Singh Brar.