In order to provide safe drinking water in the villages of Ludhiana district,Manpreet Singh Ayali,Chairman,Zila Parishad,today distributed grants worth Rs 70 lakh to 18 panchayats at Circuit House,here today. Ayali said work in four villages had been completed while it was still in progress in seven villages at the cost of Rs 3 crore. Projects worth Rs 5 crore in 11 more villages will start in July 2009. It may be mentioned that Department of Water Supply Sanitation is implementing the World Bank-assisted water supply and sanitation project in community participation mode while Gram Panchyat and Sanitation Committees in various villages are implementing this project. More than 89 villages have deposited Rs 106 lakh as their initial contribution share money and projects for these villages have been submitted for approval to the government. Out of these,28 projects have already been approved by the government and others shall be approved by July 15. Ayali said Punjab government had launched World Bank-assisted Punjab Water Supply and Sanitation Project worth Rs 1280.30 crore to provide potable drinking water in all villages in Punjab. He urged the panchyats of villages to get maximum benefit from this project. He said that 1,000 ponds in the villages were also being renovated under this programme. He said that the project would be completed by March 26,2012 and would supply water to 7.4 million people. He said the scheme would be implemented on priority in those villages,which were facing acute shortage of water. The function was attended by AK Soni,Superintending Engineer-cum-District Programme director and Er Mohd Ishfaq,District Programme specialist-cum-Executive Engineer of the Water Supply and Sanitation Department
