Raipur: Chhattisgarh has decided to install solar energy pumps in 400 remote villages to ensure clean drinking water for thousands of poverty-hit forested residents, officials of the Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) said Tuesday.
Solar energy pumps are to be installed in tribal dominated villages where government has received scores of complaints of water-borne diseases in recent years, sources in the CREDA told reporters.
"Chief minister Raman Singh has already approved the proposal and asked to identify 200 villages of the state's jungle areas that come under southern part, which is called Bastar region, and another 200 tribal hamlets of state's northern region that fall under Surguja belt," a CREDA official informed.
He added that the government has agreed to invest Rs.1 lakh for installation of each solar energy pump in 400 villages.
The state's sprawling poverty-hit Bastar and Surguja regions report several deaths annually because residents there are largely dependent on culverts and rivers for their drinking water.
IANS
First Published: Tuesday, December 06, 2011, 16:37