Minister for Public Works H.C. Mahadevappa has directed the engineers of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Minor Irrigation, PWD and other departments to be with the people who are in distress due to drought for the next two to three months and address their problems.
After inaugurating a State-level technical workshop at Birla auditorium in the city on Friday, he said that groundwater has been exploited to the maximum extent and if it is continued, getting drinking water would be very difficult.
He told the engineers to work towards increasing the groundwater table by harvesting rainwater, recharge borewells, and construct farm ponds to make agricultural land cultivable again.
Bengaluru’s rainwater is not being used
He said around 25 tmc ft. of rainwater which falls in Bengaluru can be used to provide drinking water to the whole city without any shortage. Engineers must come up with innovative ideas to use rainwater for drinking purposes in Bengaluru and other places.
Meanwhile, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs T.B. Jayachandra said that suitable legal amendment will be brought so that cases against engineers of the departments concerned are not registered in connection with illegal sand extraction and transportation. This comes in the wake of engineers complaining to him that cases are being registered against them by the police which is affecting their career.
