Appreciating the herculean task of reviving the long dead Sasur Kahderi-2 Rivulet and its origin Thithora Lake in district Fatehpur by the then (2013) District Magistrate of Fatehpur, Smt. Kanchan Verma, was honoured with Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration for the year 2013-14 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on April 21, 2015. Significantly, the award was given away by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi himself. In addition to DM, Smt. Kanchan Verma, Project Director-Mr Harishchandra, Executive Engineers – Mr Kaptan Singh and Mr Arvind Kumar were also awarded.
Smt. Kanchan Verma and her team of officers that made possible the successful ‘Revival of 46 Km long Sasur Kahderi-2 Rivulet and its origin –Thithora Lake spread in 7.377 hectare area in Distt. Fatehpur’.
The effort not only brought succour to the water needs of people, farms and environment of 42 villages, it epitomized optimum utilization of MNREGS by providing mass employment to local people for their own long-term good. The initiative was listed in ‘Best MNREGS Practices’ by the Department of Rural Development, Government of India. A big boon to the ground water replenishment, it was also selected for case study presentation in Regional Workshop on Water Resources Conservation: Village Ponds & Lakes, organized by Centre of Science and Environment, New Delhi.
Post implementation, the water discharge in the rivulet rose to 689.95 cusecs from almost nil earlier. On culmination of the project, water storage in the erstwhile dead lake was measured to be 15,000 cu.m, resulting in increased agriculture productivity of the surrounding areas many times.