Under fire from the Opposition parties and farmers for allowing industries to use water from the reservoirs meant for agricultural purpose, the State Government on Monday decided to create a Water Conservation Fund (WCF) for construction of water conservation projects. This was decided at the Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here.
As live storage capacity of a reservoir is mostly utilised by industries in non-monsoon period between October and June every year, the Government decided to involve the industries for water conservation as a part of their social responsibility, Water Resources Secretary S C Mohapatra told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.