Amarinder lays stone for canal water projects in Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday laid foundation stones for three projects to supply canal water to 409 villages in the adjoining districts of Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib.

Singh also inaugurated a sewerage project for a cluster of 10 villages near Bahadurgarh in Patiala district, where excess fluoride in water is causing skeletal and dental fluorosis, an official release said.

Speaking on the occasion at Mandoli here, the chief minister appealed to the people to use the depleting groundwater reserves judiciously and not to waste the precious resource.

"We will not leave anything for our future generations if we don't care for our water," he warned, describing the groundwater reserves in Punjab as "precarious".

Singh said the state government would not allow its water to be shared with other states. He said the entire state was facing an acute drinking water crisis, which has only aggravated over the years.

While the three surface water projects and a sewerage project ..