Bhubaneswar: The Pani Panchayat has now become a movement due to the participation, determination and cooperation of the farmers of Odisha, said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the concluding ceremony of State-level Pani Panchayat 2023 held at the Convention Center of Lok Seva Bhawan today.
Gracing the event as the chief guest, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that starting from only 700 Pani Panchayats, today 37,000 Pani Panchayats are functioning in the state. Similarly, this Pani Panchayat, which started on 3.32 lakh hectares of land, is now able to provide irrigation facilities to 23.46 lakh hectares of land.
The Chief Minister opined that this is indeed a great success. Stating that these are being implemented in various major, medium, small and irrigation project areas, the Chief Minister said that Pani Panchayats will also be implemented in large irrigation project areas in the coming days.
Chief Minister said that water is priceless. The first impacts of climate change will be on water and agriculture. Therefore, he called upon everyone to not waste water but to utilise it properly and distribute it equally. He said that “Conserve, Reuse and Recycle” should be our goal.
Ms Anu Garg, Additional Chief Secretary of the Water Resources Department, in her welcome speech said that many reform measures have been taken through 5-T along with the amendment of the Pani Panchayat Act to establish Pani Panchayats in mega lift irrigation projects.
Water Resources Minister Tukuni Sahu, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra along with top officials of the water resources department were present at the event.
