Dehradun, 11 May:
Chief Secretary Alok Kumar Jain has laid stressed on encouraging community participation in Swajal programs. Describing it a new initiative in the state, he said that the drinking water projects were selected, construct, run and maintained by the people.
Chief Secretary Jain reviewing the Swajal project with the team of World Bank at Secretariat on Friday revealed that looking into the success rate of the project, the World Bank had extended it till June 2014.
Chief Secretary said that about 4,000 villages were being supplied clean drinking water through Swajal and there had been significant improvement in sanitation in villages. He said that public toilets were being constructed for BPL families and the APL families were being encouraged to construct their own private toilets. He said that positive support was being extended by Gram Panchayats. Speaking on the capacity building, the Chief Secretary said that training for engineers and other technical staff of Jal Nigam and Jal Sansthan should be conducted on regular basis. He said it was very necessary to conduct training to develop efficiency and learn about the new techniques. He said that stringent action should be taken against those who do not take the training programs seriously and the next increment in the salary of absentees be withheld.
Besides the team of World Bank, the meeting was attended by senior officers of Jal Nigam and Jal Sansthan.