New Delhi: With the water table dropping substantially in some parts of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the government is constructing five lakh ‘farming pools’ even as he urged people to resort to water conservation methods like creating small reservoirs.

In his monthly radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’, he also asked the farming community to use less fertilizers and more modern technology, like the Farmers’ App, for their benefit.

He spoke about India hosting the F?d?ration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Under-17 World Cup football tournament next year and said it is a great opportunity for branding the country at the international level, for which immense awareness needs to be created within the nation. During the 30-minute programme, Modi talked about how the government is developing all the five places associated with Dalit icon B R Ambedkar on the occasion of his 125th birth anniversary which falls on April 14 The Prime Minister, who greeted the nation on the occasion of Easter on Sunday, spoke about various other issues including asking students to develop some skills during their vacations and urging people to work for defeating diabetes and eradicating TB from the country Referring to the agriculture sector, he said water table is falling in parts of the country and said small reservoirs should be created to conserve the essential commodity He said the government, on its part, is constructing five lakh ‘khet talab’ (farming pools) across the country Under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) also, efforts are being made to conserve water, he said, as he pitched for a people’s movement for saving water. — PTI