Dr. Ambedkar’s birth day to be celebrated as Water Day-Uma Bharti

Lauding the contribution of Dr. B R Ambedkar in water resources management of the country Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti has announced that his birth day 14th April will be celebrated as “Water Day”. She was addressing a National Seminar on Marching ahead on Dr. Ambedkar’s path of water resources management for inclusive growth organized by Central Water Commission in New Delhi today as Chief guest.

The Minister said “In the coming days water is going to become an important agenda of the government”. She said time has come to think that whether we require treated water for every work and we have to find out how to use treated and non treated water in a better way.

Underlining the role of water in different plans and schemes the Union Water Resources Minister said there is a need to reform the water resources management in the country and those who are misusing the water should be punished. Referring to the Dr. Mihir Shah report on restructuring of Central Water Commission and Central Ground Water Board the Minister said “We have to bring reforms, but it should be acceptable to all”.

Referring to the 99 Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) schemes undertaken by her Ministry the Minister said on the completion of these projects we would be able to irrigate 80 Lakh hact. additional land. She said to complete these project by the year 2020 CWC has sent teams of it young scientist to various parts of the country who will submit their reports very soon.

Referring to flood management the Union Water Resources Minister said “There is a need to redefine flood management so that it can be taken to a positive direction”. She said we have to ensure that flood management does not change into corruption management. Underlining the importance of State Government and local administration in flood management the Minister said it is their responsibility to identify flood prone areas in advance and to ensure that there is no human settlement there. If still there is human settlement the people residing there should be constantly warned of the flood, she added.

The day long seminar was attended by Dr. Amerjit Singh, OSD Ministry of Water Resources, Shri S D Dubey, Charimen CEA, Dr Sukhadeo Throat, Professor Emeritus, Central for the study of Regional Development, JNU, Shri Suresh Chandra, Former Chairman CWC, Dr. Urmila Chandel, Dr. Ambedkar Foundation, Shri M E Haque, Former Member, CWC, Shri Sanjeev Agrawal Chief Engineer, CWC and Prof. Avdhesh Pratap,Water Law Expert. During the Technical session of the seminar, the contribution of Dr. Ambedkar in the field of water management and way forward for ensuring inclusive growth of all sections of the society was discussed.