New Delhi: Odisha, which was once in news for its water crisis, has received the National Water Award from the Central Government. Odisha left Uttar Pradesh behind in the category of best state. Puducherry and Gujarat have jointly been placed third. Union Water Power Minister CR Patil announced the National Water Awards on Monday. President Draupadi Murmu will distribute these awards in the capital on October 22. Odisha has dominated the Water Awards this time.

His district Balagir has got the chance to become the winner from the eastern region. Along with this, Puri of Odisha has been ranked second among the best urban bodies and a school located in Mayurbhanj has been successful in winning the third prize in the category of best school or college. Government Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya B-3 Paschim Vihar has been ranked second in this category, while the first award was received by a government school of Sikar.

'Odisha has done better in the last one year'

Secretary of the Ministry, Debashree Mukherjee, said that Odisha has done remarkable work for water conservation and storage in the last one year and on this basis the ten-member jury selected it for the first place. Giving details of this, Debashree said that the progress of the state is worth learning for other states.

53000 structures built for water conservation

The state has built 53000 structures for water conservation and rainwater harvesting. 10,800 reuse and recharge structures have been built and 11,000 traditional water sources have been revived. Odisha has also done the best work in PM Krishi Sinchai Yojana and micro irrigation.

 40,000 hectares of land saved from waterlogging 

Due to repairing 1800 km of drainage line, 40,000 hectares of land has been saved from waterlogging. The Best District award was given in five zones- North, South, East, West and Northeast. Indore from the West region and Banda from the North and Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir jointly got the first award. Visakhapatnam from the South won. Surat, Puri and Pune were in the first three positions in the Best Urban Local Body respectively.