Twelve waterbodies in Chennai will be desilted below sill level at a cost of ₹14 crore to tackle the water crisis in the coming summer, Commissioner of Revenue Administration K. Satyagopal said here on Thursday.
Speaking at a seminar at the Indian Meteorological Society and Regional Meteorological Centre, he said, “Usually, the desilting is done up to sill level; the new plan is to do it much deeper, which will eventually help in saving quite a significant amount of water.”
Mr. Satyagopal noted the government had taken up water management at the micro level every week to mitigate the problem. “For instance, Usilampatti used to get water once in 21 days but now it receives supply once in five days; this will be reduced to three days. There are various water conservation measures that have been planned and the work on it will be finished in the next one-and-a-half months,” he added.
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He said as the State was facing a severe drought, the input subsidy for crop losses to 32 lakh farmers will be given soon; ₹2,247 crore has been allocated for this. “Without any individual interface, the money will directly reach farmers. We are in the process of validating the account numbers of farmers. They will receive the relief money soon,” he added.
He recollected the time when Cyclone Vardah hit the city and despite discussions, many telecom service providers failed to provide network. “We asked them to put a mechanism in place on the likelihood for such an event. They have miserably failed to do so,” he added.