Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday referred to a local pond in Shahabad’s Patwai area of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh being transformed into an ‘Amrit Sarovar’ – the name the PM has given to an initiative that seeks to focus on the need for water conservation, among other things.

The PM made the mention of Rampur in his radio show, ‘Mann ki Baat’ and said as part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ (75 years of India’s independence), each district would have 75 ‘Amrit Sarovars’ or ponds. PM Modi hailed the efforts made by a Panchayat in Uttar Pradesh by rejuvenating a pond that used to be filled with garbage.

“I have come to know about Gram Panchayat Patwai of Rampur in UP. There was a pond on the land of the Gram Sabha, but it was full of filth and heaps of garbage. With a lot of hard work, with the help of local people, with the help of local school children, that dirty pond has been transformed in the last few weeks,” he said.

“Now, many arrangements have been made on the banks of that lake like retaining wall, boundary wall, food court, fountains and lighting. I congratulate the Patwai Gram Panchayat of Rampur, the people of the village, the children there for this effort,” he added.

“I am eager to inaugurate the Amrit Sarovar initiative which marks a special moment in the collective endeavours to rejuvenate our water bodies and conserve every drop of water. Under this initiative, 75 water bodies will be developed and rejuvenated in each district,” PM Modi tweeted. 

As part of the initiative, the Uttar Pradesh government has also decided to come up with at least 1000 such ‘Amrit Sarovars’ across the state in the first phase and Rampur has taken the lead in this direction where one ‘sarovar’ has come up and another is coming up on 1.67 hectares of land. Officials of the urban development department said that the PM’s praise would ensure that efforts in this regard were intensified across the state.

“It is quite possible that the areas you live in don’t have any water scarcity. But you also have to bear in minds how for many others, each drop of water is worth ‘amrit’ (the elixir of life). Water conservation is also part of the resolve that the country has taken up as part of the Azaadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. As part of this initiative, 75 Amrit Sarovars would come up across the state. The day is not far when your city will have many such sarovars and I would expect the youth to know more about this initiative and take charge of it too,” the PM said.

Out of the seventy-five selected ponds, the work of pond of village panchayat Patwai of development block Shahbad was completed. Now the work on pond having the largest area (1.67 hectare) in Gram Panchayat Singan Kheda has also started. In the next three months, this pond, which is littered with garbage, will become a centre of rural tourism in the form of ‘Amrit Sarovar’.

Image source: ANI