Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday demanded special central assistance for the water-logged areas of Muktsar district, due to which vast swathes of land have turned barren.
Presiding over a high-level meeting with a Planning Commission team that visited the affected areas yesterday, Badal demanded a concrete, time-bound programme to develop an effective water management system in the state to deal with such problems.
He directed the Irrigation Department to give a detailed project to the team in this regard.
Planning Commission member Mihir Shah, who headed the team later said the members fully agreed to the alarming situation that has risen due to water logging in the state and after visiting affected areas, they found the situation was worse than what they thought.
"In the next Five Year Plan, efforts would be made for mapping the aquifer in the country to improve quality as well as quantity of ground water," Shah said.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, July 03, 2012, 17:06