NewsX, in association with the Sunday Guardian foundation, hosted the 7th session of the ‘Capital Dialogue’ series, featuring Union Minister for Jal Shakti Shri. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Rishabh Gulati, Managing Editor of NewsX, and Priya Sahgal, the Sr Executive Editor at NewsX, hosted the session. Capital Dialogue is a special televised series to take a deep dive into governance, dedicated to the founding of India’s new parliament building. The theme for the session was ‘Jal Jeevan, unleashing India’s waterways, rivers & 9 years of the Modi Government’.
The Union Minister took on audience questions ranging from the government’s vision for the water sector to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Elaborating on the new goal set under Jal Jeevan Mission, Shekhawat said “We promised to deliver water to all households in the country. Today we aim to ensure 55 litres of water to each person every day under Jal Jeevan Mission”.
He also spoke on the success of the Jal Jeevan Mission. When PM Modi announced the Jal Jeevan Mission on 5th August 2019, only 16% of households got drinking water. Today we have achieved 65% with several states like Goa, Punjab, Himachal, Andaman achieving 100% saturation”, said the Jal Shakti Minister.
Addressing AAP allegations on flooding, the Union Minister said, “AAP has always passed the buck when they have failed. Kejriwal has raised Hathnikund barrage in a letter; a barrage has no storage.”
The Union Minister also took on the newly formed opposition alliance and said, “The nation knows the true nature of the opposition; they know how much ‘India’ is in their hearts. Nobody will fall for this antic of the opposition.”
Rajya Sabha MP Shri Kartikeya Sharma and the mayor of Ambala Smt Shakti Rani Sharma attended the event amongst other dignitaries. Responding to Kartikeya Sharma’s question on the revival of the Saraswati River in Haryana, Shekhawat replied, ‘Rivers like Narmada, Godavari, and Ganga are vital for the people of India not only from a religious point of view but also from an economic point of view.’
In December 2019, iTV Network launched the Aakhri Boond initiative. It was inaugurated by Hon’ble Minister Gajendra Shekhawat ji and Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at the Art of Living Ashram in Bengaluru. The session recognized the progress made in the last four years by two key partners through the Aakhri Boond Appreciation Award. The Union Minister for Jal Shakti awarded Mr. Prasana Prabh from Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living Jaltara project. The Art of Living is working on rejuvenating 70 rivers/streams across 8 Indian states. The second recipient was Mr. Subramanya Kusnur, Founder Chairman & CEO AquaKraft. AquaKraft is working on sustainable water solutions in more than 4,000 villages, with projects harvesting over half a billion liters of water. The third recipients were Sabbas Joseph, Andre Timmins, and Viraf Sarkari of IIFA. This year, IIFA launched the BE WATER+ve campaign, an initiative to activate civil society and corporations to work with them to make rural India water positive through education and interventions. The last recipient was Anupama Madhok Sud, Director and Editor of Water Digest. Water Digest is one of the few organizations involved in the dissemination of information and updates to the water industry.
