Vadodara, Apr 30 (PTI) Gujarat deputy chief minister Nitin Patel today accused previous Congress governments in the state of not taking the issue of water conservation seriously.

He was talking to reporters here on the eve of the state government's 31-day 'Sujalam Sufalam Water Conservation Initiative' beginning tomorrow.

The initiative will see tasks like deepening ponds, desilting water reservoirs and check dams, cleaning and repairing Narmada canal networks, and implementing rain water harvesting projects in urban areas.

Through the month-long programme, set to cost Rs 345 crore, the state government aims to increase rain water conservation capacity in the state by 11,000 lakh square feet.

The project plans to revive 32 rivers across a length of 340 kilometres.

Patel said, "Only 4,000 check dams were built in the state during the previous Congress regime while the BJP-led government had built more than 1,66,082 such dams with a water storage capacity of 28,408 million cubic feet (MCF).

Patel credited this feat to the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who headed the state government from 2001 to 2014.

He added that many of these check dams had been deepened by removing silt.

"Thousands of 'talavadi' (farm ponds) were built and deepened as well and this had also created additional storage capacity," he claimed.

Patel said that 7,000 works, estimated to cost Rs 90 crore, would be undertaken in Vadodara, Chhota Udepur, Dahod, Mahisagar, Panchmahal and Anand in central Gujarat as part of the 31-day 'Sujalam Sufalam Water Conservation Initiative'.

He added that public sector units like Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals, Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals and private ones like Reliance Industries would be participating in the water conservation initiative.

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