Hyderabad: It has become a habit of sorts for Telangana State to claim the top spots on various fronts, be it industry, agriculture or welfare programmes. The latest numero uno position that the State has added to its kitty is in the field of reuse and recharge structures and in intensive afforestation. In reuse and recharge structures, the State accounted for over 1.42 lakh structures while Karnataka was a distant second at a little more than 65,000.
Telangana is also second in water conservation and rainwater harvesting with figures of over 1.19 lakh, yielding the first place to Tamil Nadu by a narrow margin of a little over 1,300.
Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti Prahlad Singh Patel, responding to a question on target and objectives of Jal Shakti Abhiyan-I (JSA-I) in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, presented the figures on various categories. In intensive afforestation, Telangana topped with 2.96 crore as on July 27 this year with Madhya Pradesh placed in the second position at 11.28 lakh.
To another question on conservation of Musi river, the Minister said the Telangana State Pollution Control Board had informed that no wastes especially from pharmaceutical industries were dumped into the river. To another question on declining ground water levels in the country, he said some States including Telangana had done remarkable work in the field of water conservation and harvesting, and made a special mention of the hugely successful Mission Kakatiya, the flagship programme of the TRS government to rejuvenate village tanks in the State.
Under Jal Shakti Abhiyan – I, officers, groundwater experts and scientists from the Centre worked with State and district officials in water stressed districts of the country to promote conservation and water resource management, the Minister said.
With this campaign, huge awareness had been generated and various stakeholders had started taking steps for water conservation. To another question on revival of conventional water bodies, he said it was for the State governments concerned to undertake enumeration, protection and management, including revival and repair of water bodies in their respective States.
The role of the Central government was limited to providing technical support, and partial financial support in some cases, as per the norms of the existing schemes being implemented by it, he said. The total number of water bodies with MI scheme was 37,014.
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