Chandigarh, May 26 - Haryana Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Lal said that every drop of water is very precious and the State Government is making future policies to save it. Suggestions and feedbacks are being sought from the farmers to improve these policies and bring good results for water conservation. At present, the ground water level has reached below 40 meters in many blocks in the state, which is a matter of concern. The government has formulated ‘Mera Pani Meri Virasat Yojana’ under crop diversification to conserve water.

The Chief Minister shared while interacting with the farmers during his visit to Kurukshetra today. He also took their feedback on water conservation issue.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister said to save water, ‘Mera Pani Meri Virasat Yojana’ has been launched by the State Government under crop diversification. Under this scheme Pipli, Shahabad, Babain and Ismailabad blocks of Kurukshetra district have been included, as the groundwater level in these blocks has gone below by more than 40 meters. Along with this Ratia block of Fatehabad district, Siwan and Guhla of Kaithal district and Sirsa block of Sirsa district is included in this scheme. The situation of ground water level in these blocks is very worrisome, farmers are being motivated to save water and for this farmers would have to move towards crop diversification, he added. Each grain of these crops would be procured on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) by the State Government and a grant of Rs. 7000 per acre would also be given for sowing maize. Apart from this, many other facilities would be given to the farmers, he asserted.

The Chief Minister said that to save water government had launched ‘Jal Hi Jeevan Yojana’ last year, but this year, while improving this scheme further, ‘Mera Pani Meri Virasat Yojana’ has been implemented. A lot of discussion was held on this scheme. Before formulating ‘Mera Pani Meri Virasat Yojana’ a lot of brainstorming was done with farmers, scientists, MLA and other people associated with the government. This scheme would be very beneficial for the coming generations, he added. He also said that under this scheme, small farmers having one to two acres of land would also get some concessions.

The goal of everyone is to save water, extract less ground water and improve the ground water level. Everyone needs to think and brainstorm on this serious subject, the Chief Minister said. He said that the State Government would implement the viable suggestions and would try to save every drop of water. He said the State Government would take necessary action on the suggestions shared by farmers of Kurukshetra so that they could get all the benefits and water could also be saved.

During his visit, the Chief Minister held one to one interaction with several farmers including Karnaraj Singh Toor, Ravi Kumar Mathana, Ashwini Kumar Babain, Suresh Chand, Pritam Singh, Vikram Atwan, Dimple Saini Babain, Rajpal, Roshan Lal, Barkha Ram, Gopal Rana, Satbir Singh, Tevar Khan, Sarvajit Singh and others on the subject of saving water by sowing maize instead of paddy crop in Kurukshetra and also invited suggestions on water conservation from everyone present.

During the interaction, farmers also shared some important suggestions in the interest of farmers in the flooded area along with Marakanda in Kurukshetra and for direct sowing. Pritam Singh, the sarpanch of village Bohli proposed to build a Gaushala on 20 acres of panchayat land. The Chief Minister Mr. Manohar Lal directed Deputy Commissioner Mr. Dhirendra Khadgata to prepare and send a detailed proposal for the same.