Uttarakhand to bear one-third cost of revival of springs, water bodies

DEHRADUN: The springs which are known to be fountainhead of all the rivers are drying up in the state. However the state government has not taken any initiative to revive them so far. However hope is rekindled this time, as chief secretary Shatrughan Singh assured concrete action when he came to attend workshop on the subject of ‘Reviving springs inUttarakhand‘ , held by Peoples’Science Initiative (PSI) on Tuesday. He asked the organizer to share the finding of the workshop with him and, also announced that whoever would work in recharging or maintenance of springs or any water body in the state would be provided one third of the total cost by the state government.

Shatrughan Singh CS said, “Women have to travel long distance to get water in hills . The perennial water sources are becoming seasonal. One of the reason for migration in hills is water. The state government has launched a scheme to create and recharge ponds in the forest across the state. For the springs too, finance can be arranged from state government under water schemes and also from the centre schemes such as MNREGA besides, funds from the private sector.”

Ravi Chopra, former director of Peoples’ Science Institute said, a cost of roughly Rs 55-60 crore would be required over a period of five years to revive 1200 springs in the state. The cost would include implementation, training, development and support minus research work.

Harshvardhan Dhawan , member of Araghyam said, that by taking help of all the four NGOs’ working in Uttarakhand for revival of springs, the state like Sikkim has launched and made success of its spring survival program but ironically the Uttarakhand government failed to do anything of this sort in its own state.