NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that people from Rajasthan and Gujarat understand water-related problems well.
While addressing the ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain’ campaign on World Water Day‘, Prime Minister Modi said, “People from Rajasthan, Gujarat understand water-related problems well. I’m also from Gujarat, faced such problems too. That’s why in Union Water Ministry, we have a minister from the region with such issues.”
The Prime Minister launched the ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain’ campaign on World Water Day today via video conferencing.
The signing of the historic memorandum of agreement between the Union Minister of Jal Shakti and the Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, in the presence of the Prime Minister, to implement the Ken Betwa Link Project, the first project of the National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers, also took place.
The campaign will be undertaken across the country, in both rural and urban areas, with the theme “catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls”. It will be implemented from 22nd March 2021 to 30th November 2021 – the pre-monsoon and monsoon period in the country, a government statement said.
It will be launched as a “Jan Andolan” to take water conservation at the grass-root level through people’s participation. It is intended to nudge all stakeholders to create rainwater harvesting structures suitable to the climatic conditions and subsoil strata, to ensure proper storage of rainwater, it added.
After the event, Gram Sabhas will be held in all Gram Panchayats of each district (except in the poll-bound states) to discuss issues related to water and water conservation. Gram Sabhas will also take ‘Jal Shapath’ for water conservation.