VARANASI, Oct. 24 -- Varanasi district administration has started efforts to check the decreasing groundwater level in the district. An action plan is being developed as part of the efforts to conserve rainwater. As part of the efforts, recently, a workshop related to 'Catch the Rain' was held in the Vikas Bhawan auditorium. Krishnan Tyagi, programme manager, Government of India, provided information about the water bodies located in the gram panchayats of all the development blocks of Varanasi district using GIS maps. Providing information about the rivers and streams passing through all the gram panchayats of the district, he advised that a plan should be developed to restore all the water bodies in the district to their original state and conserve rainwater to the maximum extent possible, thereby increasing the declining groundwater level of Varanasi district. The meeting was attended by assistant engineer, Minor Irrigation; deputy commissioner, Labour and Employment; district panchayati raj officer; senior hydrogeologist, Groundwater Department; district horticulture officer; forest officer; land conservation officer, Usar Sudhar; all block development officers and other district-level officials. After the meeting, CDO Himanshu Nagpal instructed the officials to prepare an action plan based on the information provided by Shrikrishnan Tyagi and ensure that the work is initiated immediately....