No irregularities in outsourcing of water schemes, says Stokes

Shimla, March 30

Rejecting the allegation of irregularities in the outsourcing the drinking and irrigation schemes, Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Minister Vidya Stokes said 586 of the total 11,897 schemes had been outsourced and that too by the previous BJP regime.

Replying to the debate on the cut motion in the IPH Department, she said the percentage of schemes that had been outsourced was very small and that decisions had been taken during the tenure of the previous BJP regime, and not by the Congress government.

Stokes said Rs 670 crore would be spent in the current financial year 2017-18 on providing potable drinking water to the left-out habitations. “A total of 1,209 vacant posts will be filled in the current year to tide over the problem of staff shortage,” she stated.

The minister added that the IPH Department had set a target of providing irrigation facility to an additional 2,500 hectares under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana and schemes worth Rs 5,664 crore had been prepared.— TNS