BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday said that the Water Resources department has taken up construction of 30 in-stream storage structures in the State and 16 more are in the pipeline located across different rivers.
Welcoming 106 mechanical engineers who joined the department, the Chief Minister said that these structures will not only help in conserving surface water for different purposes including rural water supply but also increase the groundwater level.
Stating that Odisha is primarily an agrarian State, the Chief Minister said that the Water Resources department has a major responsibility of providing irrigation facilities to the farmers. Besides, the department is responsible for protecting the life and property of people from natural calamities like floods with scientific management of reservoir water, he added.
Stating that Odisha now has more than 2,500 dams, Naveen informed that construction of some more dams like Lower Suktel, Deo, Kanpur and Ghatakeswar is in progress. “Water is now becoming a scarce resource with an ever-growing population and in this context, you have a major role in water conservation for different purposes,” he told the engineers.
The Chief Minister asked them to get themselves acquainted with new technologies that can bring efficiency and transparency to their work to achieve the mandate of 5T initiative. Highlighting the role of mechanical engineers, he said that though the civil construction works are done by civil engineers, mechanical engineers have a greater role in the installation of one of the important components of the hydraulic structures such as gate works including their operation and maintenance.
Minister for Water Resources Tukuni Sahu said that the newly recruited engineers must try their best to bring the benefits of State’s initiatives to people’s doorsteps. Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra advised the engineers to work with commitment and transparency.Interacting with the new recruits, Secretary to Chief Minister (5T) VK Pandian advised the engineers to have complete trust on their own merit.