The Himachal Pradesh government on Monday constituted a high level committee for monitoring the issue of water supply in Shimla town which will be headed by Chief Secretary Vineet Chawdhry.

The high level committee was constituted after an emergent meeting of senior government officials by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur to review the water crisis in Shimla.

Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development, Deputy Commissioner Shimla, Special Secretary, Revenue, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Shimla, Engineer in Chief, PWD, Engineer in Chief, IPH and Chief Engineer IPH will be its Members while Secretary, IPH its Member Secretary and Convener.

The Committee has been authorised to take all necessary steps including requisitioning, hiring of tankers and other resources both from the government and private to ensure proper supply of drinking water to the consumers in Shimla town.

Thakur directed the officers of IPH department and Municipal Corporation to make untiring efforts to ensure adequate supply of drinking water to people of Shimla town.

The CM also directed the officers of the Irrigation and Public Health Department, district administration and the Municipal Corporation Shimla to take all measures to ensure that there was no inconvenience to the residents and tourists of the Shimla town due to shortage of water during the summer season.

He said that 17 water tankers, 15 utilities and four tippers had been pressed into service to supply water in Shimla town to ease the situation.

“In addition three tankers from Sirmaur and three from Bilaspur had also been requisitioned for making available sufficient water to the people of the town,” he said.

He directed the officers to evolve foolproof mechanism for equal distribution of water through tankers so that people do not face inconvenience for getting the potable water.

He said that wide publicity regarding supply of water through tankers should be ensured so that people residing in the particular area could get information about these tankers. He also instructed the officers to check water losses due to leakage in the pipes and also plug all water connections used for construction purposes.

He appealed to the consumers to use water judiciously and said strict action would be taken against the erring officers who will show laxity towards their duties. CM directed the Chief Secretary to personally monitor the water situation and also supervise the distribution of water among the people.

CM asked the officers to stop kuhls drawing water upstream of lift water supply scheme Gumma to augment the water availability at the intake of lift water supply scheme Gumma.