Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa today issued instructions to the officials of his department to remove the illegal encroachments from the village pond lands. The minister ordered the officials to restore status quo ante (the previously existing state of affairs) after getting the records of the pond lands from the Revenue department. The lands should be marked on the basis of the records and the illegal encroachments should be removed from them, he said here in a statement. The ponds could also be used to harvest rain water as currently, the only outlet for the rain water were drains which resulted in its wastage, the minister said. "Rain water harvesting will also help raise the sub-soil water level," he added.

Source: dna July 02, 2017 14:15 UTC