5,000 new ponds to boost groundwater: Periyasamy
Offices for 500 village panchayats will be constructed at Rs. 150 Crore and new offices for 10 panchayat unions will be constructed at Rs. 60 Crore.
CHENNAI: Minister of Rural Development I Periyasamy, announced the creation of 5,000 small ponds in villages across the State to support agriculture.
“To improve ground water level and support agriculture by saving rainwater, as many as 5,000 new small ponds will be created under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme at Rs 250 crore,” he announced.
He added that ration shops in rural areas are being constructed using the MLA Fund now, and now the department will construct 500 full-time ration shops at Rs 60 crore.”
Other announcements include the construction of 500 small bridges across streams, canals, and others at Rs 140 crore, and the construction of compound walls around 500 government schools at Rs 100 crore under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme.
Offices for 500 village panchayats will be constructed at Rs 150 crore and new offices for 10 panchayat unions will be constructed at Rs 60 crore. As many as five residences with camp offices of department officers will be constructed at Rs 2 crore each. As many as 480 new vehicles will be procured for use by department officials at Rs 44 crore.
“Works such as planting trees, ponds (kasivu neer kuttai) will be created in 2,500 village panchayats at Rs 400 crore and automated on-off systems will be installed at 5,000 overhead tanks,” Periyasamy said.
While responding, the Minister claimed that the DMK government has constructed 3.25 lakh houses under PM Awas Yojana. “But the earlier government constructed only 1.82 lakh houses. We will construct another 1 lakh houses. Moreover, piped water supply to 1.25 crore houses has been provided,” he added.
