Looming water crisis: Omar asks people to use water judiciously
Srinagar: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday urged people to make judicious use of water as J&K has witnessed an 80 percent precipitation deficit.
Talking to reporters here, Omar said, “We are facing a difficult situation due to a rain deficit.”
He said, “I can understand that people are worried as we are witnessing a drought—like situation.
I urge people to make judicious use of water to ensure that we don’t suffer in the coming months.”
Asked about fulfilling his poll promises, Abdullah said the people had given him a mandate for five years and not five days.
“We have not even presented our first budget yet. You should wait, we know what promises we made and how to fulfil those. I have reiterated from day one that what we can achieve through a Union Territory, we will achieve those,” he said.
“Why am I fighting for statehood, why am I stressing on the demand? Because I know that there are many issues due to which people are suffering and such problems cannot be resolved in a Union Territory setup. It is important we need the status of a state for that,” he added.
The chief minister said his government would keep doing both together. “What we can achieve in a Union Territory, we will do that. For issues for which we need statehood, we are getting statehood.”
Abdullah, however, refused to comment on his government’s first budget.
“It will be wrong to say anything on the budget. The responsibility of the government is to present the budget in the assembly first. So, I will not say anything about it,” he said.
Asked about apprehensions of water scarcity due to the absence of good rain and snowfall during the winter, Abdullah said he understood the fear.
“We have a rainfall deficit of about 80 per cent. So, when there is little rain or snowfall, it can lead to shortage of water in the summers. So, I had said we need to prepare for the summer months because it is possible that there can be water scarcity not just for agriculture but household use as well,” he said.
The people have to make changes in the way water is used, Abdullah said.
“The government needs to take steps like rainwater harvesting and saving glaciers. We will take steps in consultation with the agriculture and the Jal Shakti departments to devise ways for providing irrigation water to farmers,” he added.
