Grow More Cities To Help Grow In small towns in rural areas sewage The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has proposed a more liberal pattern of more liberal pattern of should be collected and lifted for irrigation. Central financial assistance to the states for conversion of urban wastes into manure and utilisation of sewage for manurial purposes. Under the liberalised pattern, 75 per cent of the capital cost will be provided by the Centre as loan and the remaining 25 per cent as grant. The proposal, which is under examination in the Planning Commission, is meant to provide incentives to the local bodies for conversion of town refuse into compost. According to the ministry, nearly 80 cities and towns have complete or partial sewerage system. Besides, there are nearly 600 towns which have the surface drainage system. The total availability of sewage per day all over the country has been estimated at 700 million gallons with a manurial value of Rs. 6.60 crores. The available sewage can irrigate an area of 2,10,000 acres if properly utilised and the extra produce from this acreage would be about 3 lakh tonnes valued at Rs. 15 crores. 145 Cities Use Sewage At present about 220 million gallons of sewage are being utilised for irigation in about 145 cities and the area receiving sewage irrigation is about 30,300 acres. The ministry, in a note submitted to the fifth conference of municipal corporations held at Varanasi on November 26 and November 27, observes that in the present context of food shortage in the country, there is a great need to properly collect and utillise sewage for agricultural production and to stop the colossal waste that occurs through other means of disposal. The ministry has suggested collection of the entire waste with extension of drainage throughout the towns where it does not exist and conversion of open drains in other cities to closed drains through a phased programme of development (Continued from page 31) P. L. 480 may have been responsible for this false sense of complacency. Whatever the reason for its withdrawal, if ever there was a necessity of revising the wholesome regulation, and on a more liberal scale, it is now. No other consideration should be allowed to prevail where the growing of more food is concerned. Urgency demands the use of machinery in the completion of the task of reclamation thoroughly and well. Reclamation and farming may be undertaken by Government or entrusted to a private agency with Government participation or without it. The arrangement of the Government to allot lands to private agencies for reclamation purposes suffers from several grave defects. There are not enough sizeable tracts of Government lands in campact blocks to admit mechanised reclamation. A fleet of tractors requires a fairly adequate command within which to move and work. It cannot be shunted or made to walk after doing a bit of land as it is not economic and ruins the tractors. To raise food crops, relaxation in fiscal laws should be permitted as an emergency measure to encourage cultivation of lands belonging to landlords and tenants unable to cultivate them and special facilities and subsidies should be offered to tenants to bring about the reclamation of wastelands in their holdings. Today there has been attained an alliance between the engineer and agriculturist, a closer companionship of once scarcely related sciences made essential by the urgent need for increased food production and conservation and development of natural resources, tasks which, by virtue of their magnitude, can be accomplished only by mechanised means. Let our aim be for a colossal land reclamation achievement which undoubtedly is a basic and realistic contribution towards solving India's most urgent problem.........FOOD. Totally leak-proof SUNTAP is an improved version of "J. C. SUPER". Completely eliminates water wastage. Economical to buy and maintain Leak-proof because it is glandless and selfclosing •Less wear because there are very few moving parts-only a washer to renew Easy assembly of the component parts with facilities to carry out repairs at site Any part can be replaced without having to condemn the whole tap Tested for 300 lb. pressure and 500,000 Alipore Test Certificate No. M/NISC/63/408- Water Supply India's Colossal Water Supply Problem Rs. 1,732 Crores Needed To Solve An investment of Rs. 732 crores will be required to provide safe drinking water to the rural population in the country. And if to this were added the sum required for the urban areas, estimated by the panel of the Planning Commission and the National Water Supply and Sanitation Committee to be Rs. 1,000 crores, the total would come to Rs. 1,732 crores. Disclosing this on November 11 at a meeting of the informal consultative committee for the Health Ministry, the Union Health Minister, Dr. Sushila Nayyar, regretted that there had been a drastic cut in the Health Ministry's demands. It was with the utmost difficulty that she could secure Rs. 371 crores which was barely one-fifth of the sum required to solve the problem. The M.P.s urged that the water supply problem should be given top priority and placed on a war footing. They favoured a special discussion in Parliament. It was also felt necessary that the Planning Commission should be associated with the supply of safe drinking water to the people. Andhra Manjira Water For Hyderabad Hyderabad Corporation's Commissioner Mr. Ajit Singh said on November 8 that water from the Manjira river would start flowing into the Corporation reservoir at Maredpalli shortly and this would solve to some extent the present water difficulty in the Secunderabad area. Testing of pipelines connecting the Corporation's distribution system at Secunderabad with the Manjira mains was in progress. The Corporation had embarked on a Rs. 30-lak programme of remodelling the distribution system of Secunderabad which envisaged extension of water supply to new areas as also strengthening the supply system in congested localities. Delhi Emergency Water Supply Union Health Ministry has given a loan of Rs. 25 laks to Delhi Municipal Corporation for making alternative agreements for water supply in the Capital during the emergency. A technical sub-committee was recently formed by the Ministry to suggest new arrangements. In addition to suggesting an alternative source of supply, the recommendations of the Committee envisage the use of existing open wells, installation of 2,000 hand pumps and purchase of 15 tractor driven tankers. The civic body, however, expressed its inability to finance the project and sought funds from the Ministry. The Corporation proposes to instal tube wells and pumping sets. Nearly Rs. 15 laks will be spent on arrangements for the supply of water from the Hasanpur reservoir. Maharashtra Rs. 50-Lak Plan For Manmad A Rs. 50-lak scheme for water supply to Manmad was aapproved by the Maharashtra Government at the Cabinet meeting on November 17. The Chief Minister Mr. V. P. Naik told newsmen that the scheme would get 40 percent grant-in-aid from the GovernThe municipal contribution would be ten percent. The balance would be raised through loan from L.I.C. ment. Uttar Pradesh Agra Corporation authorities on October 30 discussed their waterworks reorganisation scheme with two members of the International Development Association in connection with their loan application of Rs. 3.5 crores. Mr. Pew and Mr. Sheffield, two members of the IDA have already visited Lucknow and Allahabad. Those taking part in the discussion were Mr. A. K. Roy, Chief Engineer, Local Self-Government Engineering Department, U.P., and a representative of the Union Health Ministry. Agra Corporation proposes to augment water supply from 25 million gallons per |