Bhopal, Apr 18: Minister for Public Health Engineering Choudhary Chandrabhan Singh has instructed the officers concerned to ensure availability of spare parts required for repair of hand pumps to proper drinking water supply during the summer season. He directed that the hand pump technicians should be assigned works with spare parts and vehicles.

The Minister has also asked the Chief Engineers, Superintending Engineers and Executive Engineers to ensure storage of necessary material for repair of hand pumps to meet any emergency situation.

The Minister directed the officers to provide weekly information to the district collectors about dried up and blocked tube wells. Special care should be taken in areas where drinking water crisis is severe so that the collectors may take a decision for transportation of drinking water.

Choudhary Chandrabhan Singh asked the officers to immediately sanction the proposals received from public representatives about piped water schemes or ground water augmentation schemes in their respective areas. Spot inspection should be undertaken immediately in villages the list of which has been submitted by the public representatives for sinking of tube wells and hand pumps. He said that in view of shortage of contractors the Chief Engineers have already been permitted to take up works on piecework basis during the summer season.

The Minister directed to start work latest by April end on the rural drinking water supply schemes for which sanction was accorded during 2007-08.