Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi visited Karaikal district and inspected the water bodies in the enclave of the Union territory that were rejuvenated and desilted under the 'Nam Neer' (Our Water) project in the last three months.
Of the total 300 water bodies, 178 have so far been revived with the participation of public, corporates and government servants.
During the inspection on Saturday, Bedi was all praise for the district Collector A Vikranth Raja for the successful work so far as he had been instrumental in bringing together members of the public, corporates and government servants.
Bedi was impressed with the work achieved by the Collector and said she would send a recommendation to the Puducherry government to nominate him for an award presented on Civil Services Day which falls on April 21.
She further said she would honour the village-level committees and individual donors who contributed to the project.
It all started five months ago when the Collector asked the temple administrations in the district to desilt the temple tanks.
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Surprisingly, the temple tanks replenishment project saw an overwhelming participationof the local people.
"We then decided to rejuvenate and replenish all the water bodies in the district. We came up with the 'Nam Neer' (Our Water) project," said the collector.
"We requested the corporates to contribute their mite under their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds. The government officeswere requested to adopt one water body each and then we formed village-level committees comprising volunteers," said the Collector.
In addition to rejuvenating the ponds, about 800 km of canals in the district has been desilted, he added.