PM writes personal letter to village pradhans
In a personal letter to 'Gram Pradhans' (village chiefs), Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed concern on the water crisis in rural areas. Modi has also requested them to conserve rainwater during the forthcoming monsoon.
The letters, signed by the PM, have been hand-delivered to the pradhans through respective District Magistrates and Collectors in the districts.
Ever since, the letter as signed by the prime minister has become a talking point among villagers of several rural belts.
Modi's letter has been delivered to 637 village chiefs in eastern Uttar Pradesh's Sonbhadra, which is located near the prime minister's constituency Varanasi. In the letter, PM Modi has requested the Pradhans (Sarpanch) that they should make personal efforts to encourage villagers to initiate the process of conserving rainwater this season.
Written in Hindi with a personal touch, the PM in his letter says, "Dear Sarpanchji, Namaskar. I hope that you and all my brothers and sisters of the panchayat would be in the best of health. The rainy season is about to begin. We are grateful to God that we have been blessed by enough rainwater. We should make all efforts and arrangement to conserve this blessing (water)."
The PM has made a special request to the Pradhans in his one-page letter that they should convene a meeting of the gram sabha (village assembly) wherein his message should be read out.
"It is requested that a discussion should be held in the village on how to conserve water. I have faith in all of you that adequate arrangements would be made to save every drop of rainwater," the letter adds.
Moreover, the prime minister has also suggested the construction of check dams and ponds where proper harvesting of rainwater can be done.
In Amroha district of UP, DM Umesh Mishra ensured that PM's letter was hand-delivered to all 601 Pradhans. The DM has already laid out a plan to dig 775 ponds in rural areas and work on 500 has already started.
Amroha, once a part of Moradabad, is considered one of the most fertile districts in UP, usually having enough rainfall every year.
Sources said that during the important meeting of the NITI Aayog Council on June 15, the PM would underline the need for rainwater harvesting to tackle the water crisis affecting the rural areas in the major part of the country.
On the instructions of the prime minister, the newly constituted Ministry of Jal Shakti recently held an inter-state meeting of ministers of all the states to review the water crisis in the country.
